Yahoo Finance Is Flotek Industries (NYSE:FTK) In A Good Position To Deliver On Growth Plans?
Even when a business is losing money, it's possible for shareholders to make money if they buy a good business at the right price. For example, biotech and mining exploration companies often lose money for years before finding success with a new treatment or mineral discovery. Nonetheless, only a fool would ignore the risk that a loss making company burns through its cash too quickly.
So should Flotek Industries (NYSE:FTK) shareholders be worried about its cash burn? For the purpose of this article, we'll define cash burn as the amount of cash the company is spending each year to fund its growth (also called its negative free cash flow). The first step is to compare its cash burn with its cash reserves, to give us its 'cash runway'.
View our latest analysis for Flotek Industries
How Long Is Flotek Industries's Cash Runway?
A company's cash runway is calculated by dividing its cash hoard by its cash burn. In December 2019, Flotek Industries had US$101m in cash, and was debt-free. Importantly, its cash burn was US$22m over the trailing twelve months. So it had a cash runway of about 4.5 years from December 2019. A runway of this length affords the company the time and space it needs to develop the business. The image below shows how its cash balance has been changing over the last few years.
How Well Is Flotek Industries Growing?
Flotek Industries reduced its cash burn by 10% during the last year, which points to some degree of discipline. But the revenue dip of 33% in the same period was a bit concerning. Considering both these metrics, we're a little concerned about how the company is developing. In reality, this article only makes a short study of the company's growth data. You can take a look at how Flotek Industries has developed its business over time by checking this visualization of its revenue and earnings history.
How Easily Can Flotek Industries Raise Cash?
Flotek Industries seems to be in a fairly good position, in terms of cash burn, but we still think it's worthwhile considering how easily it could raise more money if it wanted to. Issuing new shares, or taking on debt, are the most common ways for a listed company to raise more money for its business. Many companies end up issuing new shares to fund future growth. By looking at a company's cash burn relative to its market capitalisation, we gain insight on how much shareholders would be diluted if the company needed to raise enough cash to cover another year's cash burn.
Since it has a market capitalisation of US$50m, Flotek Industries's US$22m in cash burn equates to about 45% of its market value. From this perspective, it seems that the company spent a huge amount relative to its market value, and we'd be very wary of a painful capital raising.
So, Should We Worry About Flotek Industries's Cash Burn?
On this analysis of Flotek Industries's cash burn, we think its cash runway was reassuring, while its cash burn relative to its market cap has us a bit worried. We don't think its cash burn is particularly problematic, but after considering the range of factors in this article, we do think shareholders should be monitoring how it changes over time. On another note, we conducted an in-depth investigation of the company, and identified 4 warning signs for Flotek Industries (1 is a bit unpleasant!) that you should be aware of before investing here.
Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies insiders are buying, and this list of stocks growth stocks (according to analyst forecasts)
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