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. Having said that, unprofitable companies are risky because they could potentially burn through all their cash and become distressed.
So should Reata Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RETA) 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. Let's start with an examination of the business' cash, relative to its cash burn.
Check out our latest analysis for Reata Pharmaceuticals
When Might Reata Pharmaceuticals Run Out Of Money?
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 Reata Pharmaceuticals last reported its balance sheet in March 2022, it had zero debt and cash worth US$532m. In the last year, its cash burn was US$250m. That means it had a cash runway of about 2.1 years as of March 2022. That's decent, giving the company a couple years to develop its business. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.
How Well Is Reata Pharmaceuticals Growing?
We reckon the fact that Reata Pharmaceuticals managed to shrink its cash burn by 24% over the last year is rather encouraging. Having said that, the revenue growth of 88% was considerably more inspiring. It seems to be growing nicely. Clearly, however, the crucial factor is whether the company will grow its business going forward. For that reason, it makes a lot of sense to take a look at our analyst forecasts for the company.
How Easily Can Reata Pharmaceuticals Raise Cash?
There's no doubt Reata Pharmaceuticals seems to be in a fairly good position, when it comes to managing its cash burn, but even if it's only hypothetical, it's always worth asking how easily it could raise more money to fund 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 comparing a company's annual cash burn to its total market capitalisation, we can estimate roughly how many shares it would have to issue in order to run the company for another year (at the same burn rate).
Reata Pharmaceuticals' cash burn of US$250m is about 28% of its US$895m market capitalisation. That's not insignificant, and if the company had to sell enough shares to fund another year's growth at the current share price, you'd likely witness fairly costly dilution.