We Think Aeterna Zentaris (TSE:AEZS) Can Easily Afford To Drive Business Growth
We can readily understand why investors are attracted to unprofitable companies. 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. Nonetheless, only a fool would ignore the risk that a loss making company burns through its cash too quickly.
So should Aeterna Zentaris (TSE:AEZS) shareholders be worried about its 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. We'll start by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves in order to calculate its cash runway.
See our latest analysis for Aeterna Zentaris
How Long Is Aeterna Zentaris' Cash Runway?
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. In March 2021, Aeterna Zentaris had US$73m in cash, and was debt-free. In the last year, its cash burn was US$3.2m. So it had a very long cash runway of many years from March 2021. Even though this is but one measure of the company's cash burn, the thought of such a long cash runway warms our bellies in a comforting way. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.
How Well Is Aeterna Zentaris Growing?
Aeterna Zentaris managed to reduce its cash burn by 68% over the last twelve months, which suggests it's on the right flight path. This reduction was no doubt supported by its strong revenue growth of 99% in the same period. Overall, we'd say its growth is rather impressive. Of course, we've only taken a quick look at the stock's growth metrics, here. You can take a look at how Aeterna Zentaris is growing revenue over time by checking this visualization of past revenue growth.
Can Aeterna Zentaris Raise More Cash Easily?
We are certainly impressed with the progress Aeterna Zentaris 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. Commonly, a business will sell new shares in itself to raise cash and drive growth. By looking at a company's cash burn relative to its market capitalisation, we gain insight on how much shareholders would be diluted if the company needed to raise enough cash to cover another year's cash burn.
Since it has a market capitalisation of US$111m, Aeterna Zentaris' US$3.2m in cash burn equates to about 2.9% of its market value. That means it could easily issue a few shares to fund more growth, and might well be in a position to borrow cheaply.
How Risky Is Aeterna Zentaris' Cash Burn Situation?
It may already be apparent to you that we're relatively comfortable with the way Aeterna Zentaris is burning through its cash. For example, we think its revenue growth suggests that the company is on a good path. But it's fair to say that its cash burn reduction was also very reassuring. After considering a range of factors in this article, we're pretty relaxed about its cash burn, since the company seems to be in a good position to continue to fund its growth. Separately, we looked at different risks affecting the company and spotted 3 warning signs for Aeterna Zentaris (of which 1 makes us a bit uncomfortable!) you should know about.
Of course Aeterna Zentaris may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of companies boasting high return on equity, or this list of stocks that insiders are buying.
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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