We're Interested To See How Genetic Signatures (ASX:GSS) Uses Its Cash Hoard To Grow
Just because a business does not make any money, does not mean that the stock will go down. 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. Nonetheless, only a fool would ignore the risk that a loss making company burns through its cash too quickly.
Given this risk, we thought we'd take a look at whether Genetic Signatures (ASX:GSS) 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.
Check out our latest analysis for Genetic Signatures
How Long Is Genetic Signatures' Cash Runway?
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. As at June 2020, Genetic Signatures had cash of AU$31m and no debt. Importantly, its cash burn was AU$12m over the trailing twelve months. That means it had a cash runway of about 2.6 years as of June 2020. Importantly, though, the one analyst we see covering the stock thinks that Genetic Signatures will reach cashflow breakeven before then. In that case, it may never reach the end of its cash runway. Depicted below, you can see how its cash holdings have changed over time.
How Well Is Genetic Signatures Growing?
One thing for shareholders to keep front in mind is that Genetic Signatures increased its cash burn by 310% in the last twelve months. Of course, the truly verdant revenue growth of 131% in that time may well justify the growth spend. Considering both these factors, we're not particularly excited by its growth profile. 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 Hard Would It Be For Genetic Signatures To Raise More Cash For Growth?
While Genetic Signatures seems to be in a fairly good position, it's still worth considering how easily it could raise more cash, even just to fuel faster growth. Generally speaking, a listed business can raise new cash through issuing shares or taking on debt. 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.
Genetic Signatures has a market capitalisation of AU$275m and burnt through AU$12m last year, which is 4.3% of the company's market value. Given that is a rather small percentage, it would probably be really easy for the company to fund another year's growth by issuing some new shares to investors, or even by taking out a loan.
Is Genetic Signatures' Cash Burn A Worry?
It may already be apparent to you that we're relatively comfortable with the way Genetic Signatures is burning through its cash. For example, we think its revenue growth suggests that the company is on a good path. Although we do find its increasing cash burn to be a bit of a negative, once we consider the other metrics mentioned in this article together, the overall picture is one we are comfortable with. It's clearly very positive to see that at least one analyst is forecasting the company will break even fairly soon. After considering a range of factors in this article, we're pretty relaxed about its cash burn, since the company seems to be in a good position to continue to fund its growth. An in-depth examination of risks revealed 2 warning signs for Genetic Signatures that readers should think about before committing capital to this stock.
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)
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.
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