There's no doubt that money can be made by owning shares of unprofitable businesses. For example, although Amazon.com made losses for many years after listing, if you had bought and held the shares since 1999, you would have made a fortune. 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 Longboard Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LBPH) shareholders should be worried about its cash burn. In this report, we will consider the company's annual negative free cash flow, henceforth referring to it as the 'cash burn'. Let's start with an examination of the business' cash, relative to its cash burn.
View our latest analysis for Longboard Pharmaceuticals
How Long Is Longboard Pharmaceuticals' Cash Runway?
A company's cash runway is calculated by dividing its cash hoard by its cash burn. As at March 2021, Longboard Pharmaceuticals had cash of US$121m and no debt. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through US$11m. That means it had a cash runway of very many years as of March 2021. 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 Hard Would It Be For Longboard Pharmaceuticals To Raise More Cash For Growth?
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.
Longboard Pharmaceuticals' cash burn of US$11m is about 6.7% of its US$167m market capitalisation. 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.
So, Should We Worry About Longboard Pharmaceuticals' Cash Burn?
Given it's an early stage company, we don't have a lot of data with which to judge Longboard Pharmaceuticals' cash burn. We would undoubtedly be more comfortable if it had reported some operating revenue. Having said that, we can say that its cash runway was a real positive. Overall, we think its cash burn seems perfectly reasonable, and we are not concerned by it. Taking a deeper dive, we've spotted 3 warning signs for Longboard Pharmaceuticals you should be aware of, and 1 of them shouldn't be ignored.