Yahoo Finance We're Excited To See How Cassava Sciences (NASDAQ:SAVA) Uses Its Cash Hoard To Grow
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. By way of example, Cassava Sciences (NASDAQ:SAVA) has seen its share price rise 311% over the last year, delighting many shareholders. Nonetheless, only a fool would ignore the risk that a loss making company burns through its cash too quickly.
In light of its strong share price run, we think now is a good time to investigate how risky Cassava Sciences's cash burn is. 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 Cassava Sciences
Does Cassava Sciences Have A Long Cash Runway?
You can calculate a company's cash runway by dividing the amount of cash it has by the rate at which it is spending that cash. As at December 2019, Cassava Sciences had cash of US$23m and such minimal debt that we can ignore it for the purposes of this analysis. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through US$2.5m. Therefore, from December 2019 it had 9.1 years of cash runway. While this is only one measure of its cash burn situation, it certainly gives us the impression that holders have nothing to worry about. Depicted below, you can see how its cash holdings have changed over time.
How Is Cassava Sciences's Cash Burn Changing Over Time?
Cassava Sciences didn't record any revenue over the last year, indicating that it's an early stage company still developing its business. Nonetheless, we can still examine its cash burn trajectory as part of our assessment of its cash burn situation. Even though it doesn't get us excited, the 47% reduction in cash burn year on year does suggest the company can continue operating for quite some time. 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 Cassava Sciences Raise More Cash Easily?
Even though it has reduced its cash burn recently, shareholders should still consider how easy it would be for Cassava Sciences to raise more cash in the future. Generally speaking, a listed business can raise new cash through issuing shares or taking on debt. 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$119m, Cassava Sciences's US$2.5m in cash burn equates to about 2.1% of its market value. So it could almost certainly just borrow a little to fund another year's growth, or else easily raise the cash by issuing a few shares.
How Risky Is Cassava Sciences's Cash Burn Situation?
As you can probably tell by now, we're not too worried about Cassava Sciences's cash burn. In particular, we think its cash runway stands out as evidence that the company is well on top of its spending. And even its cash burn reduction was very encouraging. After considering a range of factors in this article, we're pretty relaxed about its cash burn, since the company seems to be in a good position to continue to fund its growth. Separately, we looked at different risks affecting the company and spotted 2 warning signs for Cassava Sciences (of which 1 shouldn't be ignored!) you should know about.
Of course Cassava Sciences may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of companies boasting high return on equity, or this list of stocks that insiders are buying.
If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.
We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
