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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, 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 history lauds those rare successes, those that fail are often forgotten; who remembers Pets.com?
So, the natural question for Tungsten Mining (ASX:TGN) shareholders is whether they should be concerned by its rate of 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. First, we'll determine its cash runway by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves.
Check out our latest analysis for Tungsten Mining
When Might Tungsten Mining Run Out Of Money?
A cash runway is defined as the length of time it would take a company to run out of money if it kept spending at its current rate of cash burn. In June 2021, Tungsten Mining had AU$19m in cash, and was debt-free. Importantly, its cash burn was AU$4.2m over the trailing twelve months. That means it had a cash runway of about 4.6 years as of June 2021. There's no doubt that this is a reassuringly long runway. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.
How Is Tungsten Mining's Cash Burn Changing Over Time?
While Tungsten Mining did record statutory revenue of AU$143k 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. The 64% reduction in its cash burn over the last twelve months may be good for protecting the balance sheet but it hardly points to imminent growth. Tungsten Mining 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 Tungsten Mining Raise Cash?
There's no doubt Tungsten Mining's rapidly reducing cash burn brings comfort, but even if it's only hypothetical, it's always worth asking how easily it could raise more money to fund further growth. Companies can raise capital through either debt or equity. One of the main advantages held by publicly listed companies is that they can sell shares to investors to raise cash and fund growth. We can compare a company's cash burn to its market capitalisation to get a sense for how many new shares a company would have to issue to fund one year's operations.