Corvus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (CRVS) Cash Flow Statement

The gap between net income and operating cash flow is most pronounced in 2025Q1, where a $15.2M net gain coincided with a -$8.3M operating cash outflow, suggesting the gain was non-cash or offset by working capital. Excluding that quarter, OCF/NI ratios hover near 0.7-0.9, implying that reported losses understate the actual cash burn. Stock-based compensation, averaging $2.6M in recent quarters, is a recurring non-cash charge that inflates the gap, but the persistent negative OCF indicates the company is consuming cash at a rate faster than net losses suggest.

The FCF trajectory is unequivocally negative, with quarterly FCF losses widening from $5.2M to $16.0M over ten quarters. This acceleration is driven by escalating R&D expenses, which have more than tripled, while capital expenditures remain minimal, indicating the burn is operational rather than investment-driven. With cash reserves of only $4.58M, the current quarterly burn rate implies less than one quarter of runway, making near-term financing a near-certainty.

CapEx has been consistently below $600K per quarter, with several quarters showing zero or even positive values, suggesting the company is not investing in physical infrastructure. This is typical for a clinical-stage biotech where the primary capital need is funding clinical trials and CRO payments, which are expensed as R&D. The lack of meaningful capex means the company's cash consumption is entirely tied to its operating activities, and any future margin expansion would require a shift to commercial manufacturing, which is not yet on the horizon.

The working capital adjustments are relatively minor compared to the scale of operating losses, suggesting that the company is not experiencing significant inventory build-up or receivable collection issues, as it has no product sales. The occasional positive working capital changes, such as in 2025Q2, may reflect timing of payments to vendors or collaboration receivables, but these are not material. The primary driver of cash outflow is the R&D spend, which is not offset by any meaningful working capital tailwinds.

The absence of dividends, buybacks, and acquisitions indicates that management is preserving every dollar for clinical development. This is consistent with a company in a cash-constrained position, where any discretionary capital deployment would be imprudent. The only capital deployment is the operational burn, which is necessary to advance the pipeline, but the lack of external financing or partnership inflows in recent quarters has left the company with a precarious cash position.

The cumulative gap between net income and operating cash flow is positive, meaning that the company's cash burn is actually lower than its accounting losses. This is largely due to non-cash charges like stock-based compensation and the one-time gain in 2025Q1, which inflated net income but did not generate cash. However, this divergence is not a positive signal; it simply reflects the non-cash nature of some expenses. The underlying trend is still a rapidly accelerating cash burn, and the cumulative gap is narrowing as losses grow.