Yahoo Finance We Think International Tower Hill Mines (TSE:ITH) Can Afford To Drive Business Growth
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. Having said that, unprofitable companies are risky because they could potentially burn through all their cash and become distressed.
Given this risk, we thought we'd take a look at whether International Tower Hill Mines (TSE:ITH) shareholders should be worried about its cash burn. For the purposes of this article, cash burn is the annual rate at which an unprofitable company spends cash to fund its growth; its negative free cash flow. 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 International Tower Hill Mines
How Long Is International Tower Hill Mines' Cash Runway?
A company's cash runway is calculated by dividing its cash hoard by its cash burn. In June 2022, International Tower Hill Mines had US$6.0m in cash, and was debt-free. Importantly, its cash burn was US$4.6m over the trailing twelve months. Therefore, from June 2022 it had roughly 15 months of cash runway. 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. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.
How Is International Tower Hill Mines' Cash Burn Changing Over Time?
Because International Tower Hill Mines isn't currently generating revenue, we consider it an early-stage business. Nonetheless, we can still examine its cash burn trajectory as part of our assessment of its cash burn situation. As it happens, the company's cash burn reduced by 15% over the last year, which suggests that management are maintaining a fairly steady rate of business development, albeit with a slight decrease in spending. Admittedly, we're a bit cautious of International Tower Hill Mines due to its lack of significant operating revenues. So we'd generally prefer stocks from this list of stocks that have analysts forecasting growth.
How Easily Can International Tower Hill Mines Raise Cash?
Even though it has reduced its cash burn recently, shareholders should still consider how easy it would be for International Tower Hill Mines to raise more cash in the future. 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.
International Tower Hill Mines' cash burn of US$4.6m is about 5.2% of its US$89m market capitalisation. 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.
Is International Tower Hill Mines' Cash Burn A Worry?
The good news is that in our view International Tower Hill Mines' cash burn situation gives shareholders real reason for optimism. One the one hand we have its solid cash burn reduction, while on the other it can also boast very strong cash burn relative to its market cap. Cash burning companies are always on the riskier side of things, but after considering all of the factors discussed in this short piece, we're not too worried about its rate of cash burn. Separately, we looked at different risks affecting the company and spotted 2 warning signs for International Tower Hill Mines (of which 1 is significant!) you should know about.
If you would prefer to check out another company with better fundamentals, then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt or this list of stocks which are all forecast to grow.
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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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