Yahoo Finance Here's Why We're Not Too Worried About Cambridge Cognition Holdings' (LON:COG) 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. Nonetheless, only a fool would ignore the risk that a loss making company burns through its cash too quickly.
So, the natural question for Cambridge Cognition Holdings (LON:COG) 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. The first step is to compare its cash burn with its cash reserves, to give us its 'cash runway'.
See our latest analysis for Cambridge Cognition Holdings
When Might Cambridge Cognition Holdings 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. As at June 2020, Cambridge Cognition Holdings had cash of UK£2.0m and such minimal debt that we can ignore it for the purposes of this analysis. In the last year, its cash burn was UK£1.3m. Therefore, from June 2020 it had roughly 18 months of cash runway. Notably, however, the one analyst we see covering the stock thinks that Cambridge Cognition Holdings will break even (at a free cash flow level) before then. In that case, it may never reach the end of its cash runway. Depicted below, you can see how its cash holdings have changed over time.
How Well Is Cambridge Cognition Holdings Growing?
At first glance it's a bit worrying to see that Cambridge Cognition Holdings actually boosted its cash burn by 30%, year on year. The revenue growth of 5.8% gives a ray of hope, at the very least. Considering both these factors, we're not particularly excited by its growth profile. Clearly, however, the crucial factor is whether the company will grow its business going forward. For that reason, it makes a lot of sense to take a look at our analyst forecasts for the company.
How Easily Can Cambridge Cognition Holdings Raise Cash?
Cambridge Cognition Holdings 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.
Cambridge Cognition Holdings' cash burn of UK£1.3m is about 7.8% of its UK£16m market capitalisation. 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 Cambridge Cognition Holdings' Cash Burn?
As you can probably tell by now, we're not too worried about Cambridge Cognition Holdings' cash burn. For example, we think its cash burn relative to its market cap suggests that the company is on a good path. While its increasing cash burn wasn't great, the other factors mentioned in this article more than make up for weakness on that measure. There's no doubt that shareholders can take a lot of heart from the fact that at least one analyst is forecasting it will reach breakeven before too long. Looking at all the measures in this article, together, we're not worried about its rate of cash burn, which seems to be under control. An in-depth examination of risks revealed 4 warning signs for Cambridge Cognition Holdings that readers should think about before committing capital to this stock.
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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. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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