Yahoo Finance Here's Why We're Not Too Worried About Burcon NutraScience's (TSE:BU) Cash Burn Situation
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, although software-as-a-service business Salesforce.com lost money for years while it grew recurring revenue, if you held shares since 2005, you'd have done very well indeed. Having said that, unprofitable companies are risky because they could potentially burn through all their cash and become distressed.
So should Burcon NutraScience (TSE:BU) shareholders be worried about its cash burn? In this article, we define cash burn as its annual (negative) free cash flow, which is the amount of money a company spends each year to fund its growth. First, we'll determine its cash runway by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves.
See our latest analysis for Burcon NutraScience
How Long Is Burcon NutraScience's Cash Runway?
A company's cash runway is calculated by dividing its cash hoard by its cash burn. In December 2021, Burcon NutraScience had CA$9.4m in cash, and was debt-free. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through CA$3.8m. So it had a cash runway of about 2.5 years from December 2021. Notably, one analyst forecasts that Burcon NutraScience will break even (at a free cash flow level) in about 4 years. That means unless the company reduces its cash burn quickly, it may well look to raise more cash. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.
How Is Burcon NutraScience's Cash Burn Changing Over Time?
In our view, Burcon NutraScience doesn't yet produce significant amounts of operating revenue, since it reported just CA$344k in the last twelve months. As a result, we think it's a bit early to focus on the revenue growth, so we'll limit ourselves to looking at how the cash burn is changing over time. With cash burn dropping by 10% it seems management feel the company is spending enough to advance its business plans at an appropriate pace. Clearly, however, the crucial factor is whether the company will grow its business going forward. So you might want to take a peek at how much the company is expected to grow in the next few years.
Can Burcon NutraScience Raise More Cash Easily?
Even though it has reduced its cash burn recently, shareholders should still consider how easy it would be for Burcon NutraScience to raise more cash in the future. Generally speaking, a listed business can raise new cash through issuing shares or taking on debt. One of the main advantages held by publicly listed companies is that they can sell shares to investors to raise cash and fund 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.
Burcon NutraScience has a market capitalisation of CA$97m and burnt through CA$3.8m last year, which is 4.0% of the company's market value. That's a low proportion, so we figure the company would be able to raise more cash to fund growth, with a little dilution, or even to simply borrow some money.
How Risky Is Burcon NutraScience's Cash Burn Situation?
As you can probably tell by now, we're not too worried about Burcon NutraScience's cash burn. In particular, we think its cash burn relative to its market cap stands out as evidence that the company is well on top of its spending. Its weak point is its cash burn reduction, but even that wasn't too bad! One real positive is that at least one analyst is forecasting that the company will reach breakeven. After taking into account the various metrics mentioned in this report, we're pretty comfortable with how the company is spending its cash, as it seems on track to meet its needs over the medium term. Separately, we looked at different risks affecting the company and spotted 4 warning signs for Burcon NutraScience (of which 1 doesn't sit too well with us!) you should know about.
Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies, and this list of stocks growth stocks (according to analyst forecasts)
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
