We Think Energy Metals (ASX:EME) Can Easily Afford To Drive Business Growth

We can readily understand why investors are attracted to unprofitable companies. For example, biotech and mining exploration companies often lose money for years before finding success with a new treatment or mineral discovery. Having said that, unprofitable companies are risky because they could potentially burn through all their cash and become distressed.

So, the natural question for Energy Metals (ASX:EME) 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. Let’s start with an examination of the business’ cash, relative to its cash burn.

Check out our latest analysis for Energy Metals

Does Energy Metals Have A Long Cash Runway?

A company’s cash runway is the amount of time it would take to burn through its cash reserves at its current cash burn rate. When Energy Metals last reported its balance sheet in June 2023, it had zero debt and cash worth AU$14m. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through AU$901k. That means it had a cash runway of very many years as of June 2023. While this is only one measure of its cash burn situation, it certainly gives us the impression that holders have nothing to worry about. Depicted below, you can see how its cash holdings have changed over time.

How Is Energy Metals’ Cash Burn Changing Over Time?

Whilst it’s great to see that Energy Metals has already begun generating revenue from operations, last year it only produced AU$210k, so we don’t think it is generating significant revenue, at this point. As a result, we think it’s a bit early to focus on the revenue growth, so we’ll limit ourselves to looking at how the cash burn is changing over time. With cash burn dropping by 13% it seems management feel the company is spending enough to advance its business plans at an appropriate pace. Energy Metals makes us a little nervous due to its lack of substantial operating revenue. We prefer most of the stocks on this list of stocks that analysts expect to grow.

Can Energy Metals Raise More Cash Easily?

Even though it has reduced its cash burn recently, shareholders should still consider how easy it would be for Energy Metals to raise more cash in the future. Issuing new shares, or taking on debt, are the most common ways for a listed company to raise more money for its business. 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 AU$39m, Energy Metals’ AU$901k in cash burn equates to about 2.3% 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 Energy Metals’ Cash Burn Situation?

It may already be apparent to you that we’re relatively comfortable with the way Energy Metals is burning through its cash. In particular, we think its cash runway stands out as evidence that the company is well on top of its spending. Its weak point is its cash burn reduction, but even that wasn’t too bad! 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. Separately, we looked at different risks affecting the company and spotted 4 warning signs for Energy Metals (of which 3 are potentially serious!) 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)