Yahoo Finance Companies Like fastjet (LON:FJET) Are In A Position To Invest In Growth
There's no doubt that money can be made by owning shares of unprofitable businesses. 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 the harsh reality is that very many loss making companies burn through all their cash and go bankrupt.
So should fastjet (LON:FJET) 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'. The first step is to compare its cash burn with its cash reserves, to give us its 'cash runway'.
View our latest analysis for fastjet
Does fastjet Have A Long Cash Runway?
A company's cash runway is calculated by dividing its cash hoard by its cash burn. As at June 2019, fastjet had cash of US$3.4m and such minimal debt that we can ignore it for the purposes of this analysis. Importantly, its cash burn was US$7.2m over the trailing twelve months. So it had a cash runway of approximately 6 months from June 2019. With a cash runway that short, we strongly believe that the company must raise cash or else douse its cash burn promptly. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.
How Well Is fastjet Growing?
Happily, fastjet is travelling in the right direction when it comes to its cash burn, which is down 83% over the last year. But it was even more encouraging to see that operating revenue growth was as flash as a rat with a gold tooth, up 467% in that time. Considering these factors, we're fairly impressed by its growth trajectory. In reality, this article only makes a short study of the company's growth data. You can take a look at how fastjet is growing revenue over time by checking this visualization of past revenue growth.
How Easily Can fastjet Raise Cash?
While fastjet 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. Companies can raise capital through either debt or equity. 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.
Since it has a market capitalisation of UK£53m, fastjet's US$7.2m in cash burn equates to about 11% of its market value. 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.
How Risky Is fastjet's Cash Burn Situation?
On this analysis of fastjet's cash burn, we think its revenue growth was reassuring, while its cash runway has us a bit worried. Cash burning companies are always on the riskier side of things, but after considering all of the factors discussed in this short piece, we're not too worried about its rate of cash burn. We think it's very important to consider the cash burn for loss making companies, but other considerations such as the amount the CEO is paid can also enhance your understanding of the business. You can click here to see what fastjet's CEO gets paid each year.
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.
