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We can readily understand why investors are attracted to unprofitable companies. By way of example, Centaurus Metals (ASX:CTM) has seen its share price rise 284% over the last year, delighting many shareholders. 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.
In light of its strong share price run, we think now is a good time to investigate how risky Centaurus Metals' cash burn is. 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'.
Check out our latest analysis for Centaurus Metals
Does Centaurus Metals 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. When Centaurus Metals last reported its balance sheet in December 2019, it had zero debt and cash worth AU$9.7m. In the last year, its cash burn was AU$3.9m. Therefore, from December 2019 it had 2.5 years of cash runway. Arguably, that's a prudent and sensible length of runway to have. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.
How Is Centaurus Metals' Cash Burn Changing Over Time?
While Centaurus Metals did record statutory revenue of AU$97k over the last year, it didn't have any revenue from operations. To us, that makes it a pre-revenue company, so we'll look to its cash burn trajectory as an assessment of its cash burn situation. With cash burn dropping by 11% it seems management feel the company is spending enough to advance its business plans at an appropriate pace. Centaurus Metals makes us a little nervous due to its lack of substantial operating revenue. We prefer most of the stocks on this list of stocks that analysts expect to grow.
How Easily Can Centaurus Metals Raise Cash?
While Centaurus Metals is showing a solid reduction in its cash burn, it's still worth considering how easily it could raise more cash, even just to fuel faster growth. Companies can raise capital through either debt or equity. 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.