Pliant Therapeutics (PLRX) AI Stock Analysis

• Market Cap: $82.35M
• Dividend Yield: N/A
• Average Volume (3M): 581.13K
• Price to Earnings (P/E): ―
• Beta (1Y): 1.15
• Revenue Growth: N/A
• EPS Growth: 14.19%
• Country: US
• Employees: 171
• Sector: Healthcare
• Sector Strength: 45
• Industry: Biotechnology
• EPS (TTM): -0.38
• Shares Outstanding: 61,914,665
• 10 Day Avg. Volume: 902,150
• 30 Day Avg. Volume: 581,135
• PEG Ratio: 0.02
• Price to Book (P/B): 0.41
• Price to Sales (P/S): 0.00
• P/FCF Ratio: -0.58
• Enterprise Value/Market Cap: 0.79
• Enterprise Value/Revenue: N/A
• Enterprise Value/Gross Profit: -51.89
• Enterprise Value/Ebitda: -0.44
• 1Y Price Target: $2.67
• Price Target Upside: 100.75% Upside
• Rating Consensus: Moderate Buy
• Number of Analyst Covering: 5
• EPS Forecast (FY): -1.51
• Revenue Forecast (FY): N/A

• Rating: 49 Neutral
• Price Target: $1.50 ▲(12.78% Upside)
• Action: Reiterated Date: 03/12/26
• Date: Action: Reiterated 03/12/26

The score is primarily held back by weak financial performance—ongoing losses, consistent negative free cash flow, and a shrinking equity cushion. Technicals provide some support via improving short-term momentum, but longer-term trend signals remain soft, and valuation is constrained by negative earnings and no stated dividend yield.

Positive Factors

Modest leverage / low debt

Pliant's low debt profile is a durable strength for a cash-burning biotech: modest leverage reduces near-term solvency risk, preserves optionality for non-dilutive financing or M&A, and lowers fixed financing costs, giving management more flexibility to fund trials and partnerships over months.

Proprietary integrin platform and advancing pipeline

The company's integrin-focused platform has produced multiple clinical-stage programs and recent interim PLN-101095 activity in ICI-refractory patients supports platform validation. Accelerating a Phase 1b expansion signals potential for durable program de-risking and broader indication strategy over the medium term.

Experienced operational leadership added

Adding a seasoned COO with extensive clinical development track record strengthens execution capability: improved trial operations, protocol design and regulatory interactions can shorten timelines, reduce execution risk, and increase probability of efficient progression of multiple programs over coming quarters.

Negative Factors

Consistent negative operating and free cash flow

Persistent negative operating and free cash flow creates a structural funding need: continued cash burn forces dependence on equity/debt or partnership milestones, raises dilution risk, and constrains the firm's ability to advance multiple trials simultaneously without securing new financing in the medium term.

Shrinking shareholder equity cushion

A materially smaller equity base reduces the firm's buffer against continued losses and limits internal capacity to absorb setbacks. This structural erosion increases reliance on external capital, weakens negotiating leverage with partners, and raises the probability of dilutive financings over the next several quarters.

No recurring product revenue; inconsistent top line

Lack of product revenue means Pliant remains dependent on collaborations, milestones and capital markets for funding. This structural absence of recurring cash inflows increases execution risk if financings stall and limits self-sustaining investment in late-stage programs absent successful partnerships or product launches.

Pliant Therapeutics Business Overview & Revenue Model

Company Description

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes novel therapies for the treatment of fibrosis and related diseases in the United States. Its lead product candidate is PLN-74809, an oral small-molecule dual selective inhibitor of avß6 and avß1 integrins, which is in three Phase 2a trials. The company also develops PLN-1474, a small-molecule selective inhibitor of avß1, which completed Phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of liver fibrosis associated with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. In addition, it is developing two additional preclinical integrin-based programs, which include an oncology program, as well as a program for an allosteric agonistic monoclonal antibody against an undisclosed integrin receptor for treatment of muscular dystrophies, including duchenne muscular dystrophy. Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2015 and is based in South San Francisco, California.

How the Company Makes Money

Pliant Therapeutics does not have commercialized products and is a clinical-stage company; as a result, it has not historically generated recurring product sales revenue. Its revenues, when present, are primarily derived from collaboration and partnership arrangements (e.g., upfront payments, research funding or cost reimbursements, and potential clinical/regulatory/commercial milestone payments and royalties tied to partnered programs). To fund operations, the company also relies on financing activities such as issuing equity and related capital-raising transactions; however, these are financing cash flows rather than operating revenue. Detailed breakdowns of specific partners, current collaboration revenue amounts, and the status/terms of individual agreements are null.

Pliant Therapeutics Financial Statement Overview

Summary

Income statement and cash flow are weak with persistent operating losses, inconsistent/absent recent revenue, and negative operating/free cash flow each year with higher burn in 2025. The balance sheet is a relative positive due to modest leverage, but the equity base has contracted significantly, increasing reliance on external capital.

Income Statement

Profitability remains weak and volatile, with sizable operating losses each year (EBIT and net income negative across all provided annual periods). Revenue has been inconsistent and recently absent (2024–2025 show zero revenue versus $1.6M in 2023 and $9.7M in 2022), which limits operating leverage and makes margins uninformative in the latest years. A positive is that losses narrowed in 2025 versus 2024, but the overall trajectory still reflects a business heavily in investment/spend mode with no sustained top-line base.

Balance Sheet

Leverage is modest overall, with debt-to-equity staying relatively low (about 0.02–0.20 across the years), which reduces solvency risk versus many cash-burning peers. However, the equity base has contracted meaningfully over time (stockholders’ equity down from $474M in 2023 to $181M in 2025), consistent with ongoing losses and cash usage. Returns on equity are deeply negative throughout, highlighting that shareholder capital is currently not generating profits.

Cash Flow

Cash generation is a key weakness: operating cash flow and free cash flow are negative every year, and free cash flow deterioration in 2025 (growth of -18.945) signals an increasing cash burn versus 2024. A relative positive is that free cash flow broadly tracks net losses (free cash flow to net income near ~1.0), suggesting losses are not heavily driven by non-cash accounting; however, the business still requires ongoing funding to sustain operations given persistent outflows.

Breakdown	Dec 2025	Dec 2024	Dec 2023	Dec 2022	Dec 2021
Income Statement
Total Revenue	0.00	0.00	1.58M	9.69M	7.57M
Gross Profit	-1.70M	0.00	1.58M	9.69M	7.57M
EBITDA	-148.38M	-205.16M	-158.23M	-118.85M	-95.73M
Net Income	-149.34M	-210.30M	-161.34M	-123.32M	-97.26M
Balance Sheet
Total Assets	225.23M	396.95M	512.15M	350.61M	221.22M
Cash, Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments	190.94M	355.72M	494.25M	331.19M	200.60M
Total Debt	29.11M	60.19M	11.37M	15.81M	7.19M
Total Liabilities	44.02M	92.87M	38.58M	37.27M	22.16M
Stockholders Equity	181.21M	304.08M	473.58M	313.34M	199.06M
Cash Flow
Free Cash Flow	-128.71M	-159.35M	-117.28M	-96.39M	-77.40M
Operating Cash Flow	-128.34M	-155.50M	-116.36M	-94.63M	-75.44M
Investing Cash Flow	134.29M	140.34M	-127.01M	-150.20M	73.70M
Financing Cash Flow	-31.70M	23.12M	274.40M	226.85M	2.53M

Pliant Therapeutics Technical Analysis

• Technical Analysis Sentiment: Neutral
• Last Price: 1.33
• 50DMA: Positive
• 100DMA: Negative
• 200DMA: Negative
• MACD: Negative
• RSI: Neutral
• STOCH: Neutral

Evaluating momentum and price trends is crucial in stock analysis to make informed investment decisions. For PLRX, the sentiment is Neutral. The current price of 1.33 is above the 20-day moving average (MA) of 1.30, above the 50-day MA of 1.26, and below the 200-day MA of 1.44, indicating a neutral trend. The MACD of 0.03 indicates Negative momentum. The RSI at 54.12 is Neutral, neither overbought nor oversold. The STOCH value of 43.66 is Neutral, not indicating any strong overbought or oversold conditions. Overall, these indicators collectively point to a Neutral sentiment for PLRX.

Pliant Therapeutics Peers Comparison

Name	Overall Rating	Market Cap	P/E Ratio	ROE	Dividend Yield	Revenue Growth	EPS Growth
ORMP	62 Neutral	$143.69M	0.57	27.20%	―	―	814.20%
Sector *	51 Neutral	$7.86B	-0.30	-43.30%	2.27%	22.53%	-2.21%
EQ	50 Neutral	$130.92M	-3.02	-148.81%	―	-90.43%	-382.07%
PLRX	49 Neutral	$82.35M	-0.79	-71.51%	―	―	14.19%
OVID	47 Neutral	$261.67M	-1.90	-63.74%	―	946.61%	-11.30%
IFRX	43 Neutral	$61.31M	-1.58	-68.47%	―	―	―
QNCX	40 Underperform	$5.51M	-1.64	-370.46%	―	―	2.26%

Pliant Therapeutics Corporate Events

Pliant Therapeutics Extends Stockholder Rights Agreement Expiration

On March 3, 2026, Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. amended its Stockholder Rights Agreement with Computershare Trust Company, N.A., extending the final expiration of the shareholder rights from March 11, 2026, to March 11, 2027, while leaving other core terms intact. The company stated the extension is designed to deter any entity from gaining control through open market share accumulation without paying a control premium or allowing sufficient time for the board to evaluate options, emphasizing that the move was not triggered by a specific takeover bid and is not meant to block board-approved transactions.

The most recent analyst rating on (PLRX) stock is a Hold with a $2.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on Pliant Therapeutics stock, see the PLRX Stock Forecast page.

Pliant Therapeutics Appoints Minnie Kuo as COO

On December 10, 2025, Pliant Therapeutics appointed Minnie Kuo as Chief Operating Officer. Ms. Kuo, who joined the company in September 2023 as Chief Development Officer, brings over 20 years of experience in clinical development across multiple therapeutic areas. Her appointment is expected to enhance Pliant’s operational capabilities, given her extensive background in leading clinical and business operations at Vir Biotechnology and other prominent firms.

The most recent analyst rating on (PLRX) stock is a Hold with a $4.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on Pliant Therapeutics stock, see the PLRX Stock Forecast page.