Yahoo Finance Companies Like HashChain Technology (CVE:KASH) Can Be Considered Quite Risky
Just because a business does not make any money, does not mean that the stock will go down. 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?
Given this risk, we thought we'd take a look at whether HashChain Technology (CVE:KASH) shareholders should be worried about its cash burn. For the purpose of this article, we'll define cash burn as the amount of cash the company is spending each year to fund its growth (also called its negative free cash flow). Let's start with an examination of the business's cash, relative to its cash burn.
View our latest analysis for HashChain Technology
When Might HashChain Technology Run Out Of Money?
A company's cash runway is calculated by dividing its cash hoard by its cash burn. In May 2019, HashChain Technology had CA$56k in cash, and was debt-free. Importantly, its cash burn was CA$2.6m over the trailing twelve months. That means it had a cash runway of under two months as of May 2019. It's extremely surprising to us that the company has allowed its cash runway to get that short! The image below shows how its cash balance has been changing over the last few years.
How Well Is HashChain Technology Growing?
HashChain Technology managed to reduce its cash burn by 89% over the last twelve months, which is extremely promising, when it comes to considering its need for cash. Arguably, however, the revenue growth of 185% during the period was even more impressive. Considering these factors, we're fairly impressed by its growth trajectory. Of course, we've only taken a quick look at the stock's growth metrics, here. This graph of historic revenue growth shows how HashChain Technology is building its business over time.
How Easily Can HashChain Technology Raise Cash?
HashChain Technology seems to be in a fairly good position, in terms of cash burn, but we still think it's worthwhile considering how easily it could raise more money if it wanted to. 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. 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.
HashChain Technology's cash burn of CA$2.6m is about 67% of its CA$3.9m market capitalisation. Given how large that cash burn is, relative to the market value of the entire company, we'd consider it to be a high risk stock, with the real possibility of extreme dilution.
So, Should We Worry About HashChain Technology's Cash Burn?
On this analysis of HashChain Technology's cash burn, we think its cash burn reduction was reassuring, while its cash runway has us a bit worried. After looking at that range of measures, we think shareholders should be extremely attentive to how the company is using its cash, as the cash burn makes us uncomfortable. While we always like to monitor cash burn for early stage companies, qualitative factors such as the CEO pay can also shed light on the situation. Click here to see free what the HashChain Technology CEO is paid..
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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