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Is Azure Minerals Limited’s (ASX:AZS) Balance Sheet A Threat To Its Future?

Azure Minerals Limited (ASX:AZS), which has zero-debt on its balance sheet, can maximize capital returns by increasing debt due to its lower cost of capital. However, the trade-off is AZS will have to follow strict debt obligations which will reduce its financial flexibility. While AZS has no debt on its balance sheet, it doesn’t necessarily mean it exhibits financial strength. I will take you through a few basic checks to assess the financial health of companies with no debt.

View our latest analysis for Azure Minerals

Is financial flexibility worth the lower cost of capital?

Debt funding can be cheaper than issuing new equity due to lower interest cost on debt. Though, the trade-offs are that lenders require stricter capital management requirements, in addition to having a higher claim on company assets relative to shareholders. The lack of debt on AZS’s balance sheet may be because it does not have access to cheap capital, or it may believe this trade-off is not worth it. Choosing financial flexibility over capital returns make sense if AZS is a high-growth company. AZS delivered a negative revenue growth of -81%. While its negative growth hardly justifies opting for zero-debt, if the decline sustains, it may find it hard to raise debt at an acceptable cost.

ASX:AZS Historical Debt November 6th 18
ASX:AZS Historical Debt November 6th 18

Does AZS’s liquid assets cover its short-term commitments?

Since Azure Minerals doesn’t have any debt on its balance sheet, it doesn’t have any solvency issues, which is a term used to describe the company’s ability to meet its long-term obligations. But another important aspect of financial health is liquidity: the company’s ability to meet short-term obligations, including payments to suppliers and employees. Looking at AZS’s most recent AU$422k liabilities, the company has maintained a safe level of current assets to meet its obligations, with the current ratio last standing at 17.53x. However, anything above 3x may be considered excessive by some investors.

Next Steps:

As a high-growth company, it may be beneficial for AZS to have some financial flexibility, hence zero-debt. This may mean this is an optimal capital structure for the business, given that it is also meeting its short-term commitment. Moving forward, its financial position may change. Keep in mind I haven’t considered other factors such as how AZS has been performing in the past. I recommend you continue to research Azure Minerals to get a better picture of the stock by looking at:

  1. Historical Performance: What has AZS’s returns been like over the past? Go into more detail in the past track record analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of our analysis for more clarity.

  2. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.

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