Here's Why We're Watching Pieris Pharmaceuticals's (NASDAQ:PIRS) 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.
Given this risk, we thought we'd take a look at whether Pieris Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:PIRS) shareholders should be worried about its cash burn. For the purposes of this article, cash burn is the annual rate at which an unprofitable company spends cash to fund its growth; its negative free cash flow. First, we'll determine its cash runway by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves.
View our latest analysis for Pieris Pharmaceuticals
How Long Is Pieris Pharmaceuticals's Cash Runway?
A company's cash runway is calculated by dividing its cash hoard by its cash burn. In December 2019, Pieris Pharmaceuticals had US$104m in cash, and was debt-free. In the last year, its cash burn was US$55m. That means it had a cash runway of around 23 months as of December 2019. While that cash runway isn't too concerning, sensible holders would be peering into the distance, and considering what happens if the company runs out of cash. Depicted below, you can see how its cash holdings have changed over time.
How Well Is Pieris Pharmaceuticals Growing?
It was quite stunning to see that Pieris Pharmaceuticals increased its cash burn by 1887% over the last year. While that isa little concerning at a glance, the company has a track record of recent growth, evidenced by the impressive 59% growth in revenue, over the very same year. 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.
Can Pieris Pharmaceuticals Raise More Cash Easily?
Pieris Pharmaceuticals 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. 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.
Pieris Pharmaceuticals has a market capitalisation of US$157m and burnt through US$55m last year, which is 35% of the company's market value. That's fairly notable cash burn, so if the company had to sell shares to cover the cost of another year's operations, shareholders would suffer some costly dilution.
How Risky Is Pieris Pharmaceuticals's Cash Burn Situation?
On this analysis of Pieris Pharmaceuticals's cash burn, we think its revenue growth was reassuring, while its increasing cash burn has us a bit worried. 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. Separately, we looked at different risks affecting the company and spotted 3 warning signs for Pieris Pharmaceuticals (of which 1 is concerning!) you should know about.
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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