Yahoo Finance We're Keeping An Eye On GPM Metals's (CVE:GPM) Cash Burn Rate
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 history lauds those rare successes, those that fail are often forgotten; who remembers Pets.com?
So should GPM Metals (CVE:GPM) shareholders 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'. First, we'll determine its cash runway by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves.
See our latest analysis for GPM Metals
Does GPM Metals Have A Long 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, GPM Metals had cash of CA$453k and no debt. Importantly, its cash burn was CA$529k over the trailing twelve months. That means it had a cash runway of around 10 months as of September 2019. To be frank, this kind of short runway puts us on edge, as it indicates the company must reduce its cash burn significantly, or else raise cash imminently. The image below shows how its cash balance has been changing over the last few years.
How Is GPM Metals's Cash Burn Changing Over Time?
Because GPM Metals isn't currently generating revenue, we consider it an early-stage business. Nonetheless, we can still examine its cash burn trajectory as part of our assessment of its cash burn situation. As it happens, the company's cash burn reduced by 50% over the last year, which suggests that management are mindful of the possibility of running out of cash. GPM Metals makes us a little nervous due to its lack of substantial operating revenue. So we'd generally prefer stocks from this list of stocks that have analysts forecasting growth.
How Easily Can GPM Metals Raise Cash?
Even though it has reduced its cash burn recently, shareholders should still consider how easy it would be for GPM Metals to raise more cash in the future. Issuing new shares, or taking on debt, are the most common ways for a listed company to raise more money for its business. One of the main advantages held by publicly listed companies is that they can sell shares to investors to raise cash to 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.
GPM Metals's cash burn of CA$529k is about 17% of its CA$3.2m market capitalisation. 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.
So, Should We Worry About GPM Metals's Cash Burn?
Even though its cash runway makes us a little nervous, we are compelled to mention that we thought GPM Metals's cash burn reduction was relatively promising. We don't think its cash burn is particularly problematic, but after considering the range of factors in this article, we do think shareholders should be monitoring how it changes over time. While it's important to consider hard data like the metrics discussed above, many investors would also be interested to note that GPM Metals insiders have been trading shares in the company. Click here to find out if they 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 interesting companies, and this list of stocks growth stocks (according to analyst forecasts)
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