Yahoo Finance We're Keeping An Eye On Midnight Sun Mining's (CVE:MMA) Cash Burn Rate
We can readily understand why investors are attracted to unprofitable companies. 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 should Midnight Sun Mining (CVE:MMA) shareholders be worried about its 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. The first step is to compare its cash burn with its cash reserves, to give us its 'cash runway'.
View our latest analysis for Midnight Sun Mining
When Might Midnight Sun Mining Run Out Of Money?
You can calculate a company's cash runway by dividing the amount of cash it has by the rate at which it is spending that cash. In June 2019, Midnight Sun Mining had CA$37k in cash, and was debt-free. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through CA$1.1m. So it seems to us it had a cash runway of less than two months from June 2019. To be frank we are alarmed by how short that cash runway is! Depicted below, you can see how its cash holdings have changed over time.
How Is Midnight Sun Mining's Cash Burn Changing Over Time?
Because Midnight Sun Mining 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. We'd venture that the 77% reduction in cash burn over the last year shows that management are, at least, mindful of its ongoing need for cash. Midnight Sun Mining 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.
Can Midnight Sun Mining Raise More Cash Easily?
While we're comforted by the recent reduction evident from our analysis of Midnight Sun Mining's cash burn, it is still worth considering how easily the company could raise more funds, if it wanted to accelerate spending to drive growth. Issuing new shares, or taking on debt, are the most common ways for a listed company to raise more money for its business. Many companies end up issuing new shares to fund future growth. By comparing a company's annual cash burn to its total market capitalisation, we can estimate roughly how many shares it would have to issue in order to run the company for another year (at the same burn rate).
Midnight Sun Mining's cash burn of CA$1.1m is about 11% of its CA$11m market capitalisation. As a result, we'd venture that the company could raise more cash for growth without much trouble, albeit at the cost of some dilution.
How Risky Is Midnight Sun Mining's Cash Burn Situation?
On this analysis of Midnight Sun Mining's cash burn, we think its cash burn reduction was reassuring, while its cash runway has us a bit worried. Summing up, we think the Midnight Sun Mining's cash burn is a risk, based on the factors we mentioned in this article. 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: Midnight Sun Mining 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 interesting companies, and this list of stocks growth stocks (according to analyst forecasts)
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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. Thank you for reading.
