Yahoo Finance Here's Why We're Not Too Worried About IMPACT Silver's (CVE:IPT) Cash Burn Situation
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. But while history lauds those rare successes, those that fail are often forgotten; who remembers Pets.com?
So, the natural question for IMPACT Silver (CVE:IPT) shareholders is whether they should be concerned by its rate of cash burn. In this article, we define cash burn as its annual (negative) free cash flow, which is the amount of money a company spends each year to fund its growth. We'll start by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves in order to calculate its cash runway.
See our latest analysis for IMPACT Silver
How Long Is IMPACT Silver's Cash Runway?
A company's cash runway is the amount of time it would take to burn through its cash reserves at its current cash burn rate. As at September 2019, IMPACT Silver had cash of CA$4.4m and no debt. In the last year, its cash burn was CA$2.8m. So it had a cash runway of approximately 19 months from September 2019. That's not too bad, but it's fair to say the end of the cash runway is in sight, unless cash burn reduces drastically. Depicted below, you can see how its cash holdings have changed over time.
How Well Is IMPACT Silver Growing?
We reckon the fact that IMPACT Silver managed to shrink its cash burn by 52% over the last year is rather encouraging. Unfortunately, however, operating revenue declined by 7.0% during the period. On balance, we'd say the company is improving over time. Of course, we've only taken a quick look at the stock's growth metrics, here. You can take a look at how IMPACT Silver has developed its business over time by checking this visualization of its revenue and earnings history.
How Easily Can IMPACT Silver Raise Cash?
IMPACT Silver 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. 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.
IMPACT Silver has a market capitalisation of CA$51m and burnt through CA$2.8m last year, which is 5.5% of the company's market value. 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 IMPACT Silver's Cash Burn?
On this analysis of IMPACT Silver's cash burn, we think its cash burn relative to its market cap was reassuring, while its falling revenue has us a bit worried. Considering all the factors discussed in this article, we're not overly concerned about the company's cash burn, although we do think shareholders should keep an eye on how it develops. When you don't have traditional metrics like earnings per share and free cash flow to value a company, many are extra motivated to consider qualitative factors such as whether insiders are buying or selling shares. Please Note: IMPACT Silver insiders have been trading shares, according to our data. Click here to check whether insiders have been buying or selling.
Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies insiders are buying, and this list of stocks growth stocks (according to analyst forecasts)
If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. 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. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.
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