Yahoo Finance We're Not Very Worried About Bougainville Copper's (ASX:BOC) Cash Burn Rate
We can readily understand why investors are attracted to unprofitable companies. 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. But while the successes are well known, investors should not ignore the very many unprofitable companies that simply burn through all their cash and collapse.
Given this risk, we thought we'd take a look at whether Bougainville Copper (ASX:BOC) shareholders should be worried about its cash burn. For the purposes of this article, cash burn is the annual rate at which an unprofitable company spends cash to fund its growth; its negative free cash flow. The first step is to compare its cash burn with its cash reserves, to give us its 'cash runway'.
Check out our latest analysis for Bougainville Copper
When Might Bougainville Copper Run Out Of Money?
A company's cash runway is the amount of time it would take to burn through its cash reserves at its current cash burn rate. When Bougainville Copper last reported its balance sheet in June 2021, it had zero debt and cash worth K7.4m. In the last year, its cash burn was K4.7m. So it had a cash runway of approximately 19 months from June 2021. While that cash runway isn't too concerning, sensible holders would be peering into the distance, and considering what happens if the company runs out of cash. Depicted below, you can see how its cash holdings have changed over time.
How Is Bougainville Copper's Cash Burn Changing Over Time?
In the last year, Bougainville Copper did book revenue of K4.0m, but its revenue from operations was less, at just K272k. We don't think that's enough operating revenue for us to understand too much from revenue growth rates, since the company is growing off a low base. So we'll focus on the cash burn, today. Even though it doesn't get us excited, the 42% reduction in cash burn year on year does suggest the company can continue operating for quite some time. Bougainville Copper makes us a little nervous due to its lack of substantial operating revenue. So we'd generally prefer stocks from this list of stocks that have analysts forecasting growth.
How Easily Can Bougainville Copper Raise Cash?
Even though it has reduced its cash burn recently, shareholders should still consider how easy it would be for Bougainville Copper to raise more cash in the future. Generally speaking, a listed business can raise new cash through issuing shares or taking on debt. Commonly, a business will sell new shares in itself to raise cash and drive 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.
Bougainville Copper has a market capitalisation of K377m and burnt through K4.7m last year, which is 1.2% of the company's 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.
Is Bougainville Copper's Cash Burn A Worry?
It may already be apparent to you that we're relatively comfortable with the way Bougainville Copper is burning through its cash. 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 cash runway wasn't quite as good, but was still rather encouraging! Considering all the factors discussed in this article, we're not overly concerned about the company's cash burn, although we do think shareholders should keep an eye on how it develops. Taking a deeper dive, we've spotted 2 warning signs for Bougainville Copper you should be aware of, and 1 of them is a bit unpleasant.
Of course Bougainville Copper 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.
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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.
