We Think Concert Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:CNCE) Needs To Drive Business Growth Carefully
Even when a business is losing money, it's possible for shareholders to make money if they buy a good business at the right price. 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. Having said that, unprofitable companies are risky because they could potentially burn through all their cash and become distressed.
So, the natural question for Concert Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:CNCE) shareholders is whether they should be concerned by its rate of 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. The first step is to compare its cash burn with its cash reserves, to give us its 'cash runway'.
View our latest analysis for Concert Pharmaceuticals
Does Concert Pharmaceuticals Have A Long 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. As at September 2020, Concert Pharmaceuticals had cash of US$127m and no debt. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through US$68m. So it had a cash runway of approximately 22 months from September 2020. That's not too bad, but it's fair to say the end of the cash runway is in sight, unless cash burn reduces drastically. The image below shows how its cash balance has been changing over the last few years.
How Well Is Concert Pharmaceuticals Growing?
At first glance it's a bit worrying to see that Concert Pharmaceuticals actually boosted its cash burn by 36%, year on year. On the other hand, the impressive revenue growth of 634% signals that the increased expenditure may well be yielding results. It may well be that it has some excellent opportunities to invest in growth. It seems to be growing nicely. Clearly, however, the crucial factor is whether the company will grow its business going forward. So you might want to take a peek at how much the company is expected to grow in the next few years.
Can Concert Pharmaceuticals Raise More Cash Easily?
While Concert Pharmaceuticals seems to be in a fairly good position, it's still worth considering how easily it could raise more cash, even just to fuel faster growth. Issuing new shares, or taking on debt, are the most common ways for a listed company to raise more money for its business. Many companies end up issuing new shares to fund future 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).
Concert Pharmaceuticals has a market capitalisation of US$220m and burnt through US$68m last year, which is 31% of the company's market value. That's not insignificant, and if the company had to sell enough shares to fund another year's growth at the current share price, you'd likely witness fairly costly dilution.
So, Should We Worry About Concert Pharmaceuticals' Cash Burn?
On this analysis of Concert Pharmaceuticals' cash burn, we think its revenue growth was reassuring, while its cash burn relative to its market cap has us a bit worried. While we're the kind of investors who are always a bit concerned about the risks involved with cash burning companies, the metrics we have discussed in this article leave us relatively comfortable about Concert Pharmaceuticals' situation. Its important for readers to be cognizant of the risks that can affect the company's operations, and we've picked out 3 warning signs for Concert Pharmaceuticals that investors should know when investing in the stock.
Of course Concert Pharmaceuticals 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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