We Think CEL-SCI (NYSEMKT:CVM) Needs To Drive Business Growth Carefully
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We can readily understand why investors are attracted to unprofitable companies. Indeed, CEL-SCI (NYSEMKT:CVM) stock is up 117% in the last year, providing strong gains for shareholders. Nonetheless, only a fool would ignore the risk that a loss making company burns through its cash too quickly.
In light of its strong share price run, we think now is a good time to investigate how risky CEL-SCI's cash burn is. For the purpose of this article, we'll define cash burn as the amount of cash the company is spending each year to fund its growth (also called its negative free cash flow). We'll start by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves in order to calculate its cash runway.
View our latest analysis for CEL-SCI
When Might CEL-SCI 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. When CEL-SCI last reported its balance sheet in March 2020, it had zero debt and cash worth US$14m. Importantly, its cash burn was US$17m over the trailing twelve months. So it had a cash runway of approximately 10 months from March 2020. That's quite a short cash runway, indicating the company must either reduce its annual cash burn or replenish its cash. Depicted below, you can see how its cash holdings have changed over time.
How Is CEL-SCI's Cash Burn Changing Over Time?
In our view, CEL-SCI doesn't yet produce significant amounts of operating revenue, since it reported just US$520k in the last twelve months. Therefore, for the purposes of this analysis we'll focus on how the cash burn is tracking. Over the last year its cash burn actually increased by 15%, which suggests that management are increasing investment in future growth, but not too quickly. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but investors should be mindful of the fact that will shorten the cash runway. 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 Hard Would It Be For CEL-SCI To Raise More Cash For Growth?
Since its cash burn is moving in the wrong direction, CEL-SCI shareholders may wish to think ahead to when the company may need to raise more cash. Generally speaking, a listed business can raise new cash through issuing shares or taking on debt. Commonly, a business will sell new shares in itself to raise cash and drive growth. By comparing a company's annual cash burn to its total market capitalisation, we can estimate roughly how many shares it would have to issue in order to run the company for another year (at the same burn rate).
CEL-SCI has a market capitalisation of US$533m and burnt through US$17m last year, which is 3.3% of the company's market value. 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 CEL-SCI's Cash Burn?
Even though its cash runway makes us a little nervous, we are compelled to mention that we thought CEL-SCI's cash burn relative to its market cap was relatively promising. 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. Taking a deeper dive, we've spotted 4 warning signs for CEL-SCI you should be aware of, and 2 of them make us uncomfortable.
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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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