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Can Visible Gold Mines (CVE:VGD) Afford To Invest In Growth?

There's no doubt that money can be made by owning shares of unprofitable businesses. For example, biotech and mining exploration companies often lose money for years before finding success with a new treatment or mineral discovery. 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.

So, the natural question for Visible Gold Mines (CVE:VGD) 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 Visible Gold Mines

How Long Is Visible Gold Mines's Cash Runway?

A company's cash runway is calculated by dividing its cash hoard by its cash burn. In January 2020, Visible Gold Mines had CA$17k in cash, and was debt-free. Importantly, its cash burn was CA$259k over the trailing twelve months. So it seems to us it had a cash runway of less than two months from January 2020. To be frank we are alarmed by how short that cash runway is! The image below shows how its cash balance has been changing over the last few years.

TSXV:VGD Historical Debt June 3rd 2020
TSXV:VGD Historical Debt June 3rd 2020

How Is Visible Gold Mines's Cash Burn Changing Over Time?

Because Visible Gold Mines isn't currently generating revenue, we consider it an early-stage business. So while we can't look to sales to understand growth, we can look at how the cash burn is changing to understand how expenditure is trending over time. Over the last year its cash burn actually increased by 27%, which suggests that management are increasing investment in future growth, but not too quickly. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but investors should be mindful of the fact that will shorten the cash runway. Admittedly, we're a bit cautious of Visible Gold Mines due to its lack of significant operating revenues. We prefer most of the stocks on this list of stocks that analysts expect to grow.

How Easily Can Visible Gold Mines Raise Cash?

Since its cash burn is moving in the wrong direction, Visible Gold Mines shareholders may wish to think ahead to when the company may need to raise more cash. Companies can raise capital through either debt or equity. Commonly, a business will sell new shares in itself to raise cash to drive 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.

Visible Gold Mines has a market capitalisation of CA$2.6m and burnt through CA$259k last year, which is 10% of the company's market value. Given that situation, it's fair to say the company wouldn't have much trouble raising more cash for growth, but shareholders would be somewhat diluted.

How Risky Is Visible Gold Mines's Cash Burn Situation?

Even though its cash runway makes us a little nervous, we are compelled to mention that we thought Visible Gold Mines's cash burn relative to its market cap was relatively promising. Considering all the measures mentioned in this report, we reckon that its cash burn is fairly risky, and if we held shares we'd be watching like a hawk for any deterioration. Taking a deeper dive, we've spotted 4 warning signs for Visible Gold Mines you should be aware of, and 2 of them are a bit concerning.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies, and this list of stocks growth stocks (according to analyst forecasts)

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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. Thank you for reading.