Spero Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SPRO) Is In A Strong Position To Grow Its Business
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. But the harsh reality is that very many loss making companies burn through all their cash and go bankrupt.
Given this risk, we thought we'd take a look at whether Spero Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SPRO) shareholders should 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'.
Check out our latest analysis for Spero Therapeutics
How Long Is Spero Therapeutics' Cash Runway?
A cash runway is defined as the length of time it would take a company to run out of money if it kept spending at its current rate of cash burn. As at December 2022, Spero Therapeutics had cash of US$109m and no debt. Importantly, its cash burn was US$7.7m over the trailing twelve months. So it had a very long cash runway of many years from December 2022. Notably, however, analysts think that Spero Therapeutics will break even (at a free cash flow level) before then. In that case, it may never reach the end of its cash runway. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.
How Well Is Spero Therapeutics Growing?
Given our focus on Spero Therapeutics' cash burn, we're delighted to see that it reduced its cash burn by a nifty 88%. And it is also great to see that the revenue is up a stonking 193% in the same time period. Considering these factors, we're fairly impressed by its growth trajectory. 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 Spero Therapeutics Raise Cash?
We are certainly impressed with the progress Spero Therapeutics has made over the last year, but it is also worth considering how costly it would be if it wanted to raise more cash to fund faster growth. Companies can raise capital through either debt or equity. 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.
Spero Therapeutics has a market capitalisation of US$76m and burnt through US$7.7m last year, which is 10% of the company's market value. 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.
So, Should We Worry About Spero Therapeutics' Cash Burn?
As you can probably tell by now, we're not too worried about Spero Therapeutics' cash burn. In particular, we think its cash burn reduction stands out as evidence that the company is well on top of its spending. And even though its cash burn relative to its market cap wasn't quite as impressive, it was still a positive. One real positive is that analysts are forecasting that the company will reach breakeven. Taking all the factors in this report into account, we're not at all worried about its cash burn, as the business appears well capitalized to spend as needs be. Taking a deeper dive, we've spotted 3 warning signs for Spero Therapeutics you should be aware of, and 1 of them is significant.
Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies insiders are buying, and this list of stocks growth stocks (according to analyst forecasts)
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. 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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