Companies Like Northern Minerals (ASX:NTU) Are In A Position To Invest In Growth

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, biotech and mining exploration companies often lose money for years before finding success with a new treatment or mineral discovery. Nonetheless, only a fool would ignore the risk that a loss making company burns through its cash too quickly.

Given this risk, we thought we'd take a look at whether Northern Minerals (ASX:NTU) shareholders should 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. The first step is to compare its cash burn with its cash reserves, to give us its 'cash runway'.

See our latest analysis for Northern Minerals

Does Northern Minerals Have A Long Cash Runway?

A company's cash runway is calculated by dividing its cash hoard by its cash burn. As at June 2021, Northern Minerals had cash of AU$20m and no debt. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through AU$8.5m. Therefore, from June 2021 it had 2.3 years of cash runway. That's decent, giving the company a couple years to develop its business. The image below shows how its cash balance has been changing over the last few years.

How Well Is Northern Minerals Growing?

Happily, Northern Minerals is travelling in the right direction when it comes to its cash burn, which is down 82% over the last year. But the top line growth tells a different story, with operating revenue falling 50% in that time. On balance, we'd say the company is improving over time. Of course, we've only taken a quick look at the stock's growth metrics, here. This graph of historic earnings and revenue shows how Northern Minerals is building its business over time.

Can Northern Minerals Raise More Cash Easily?

Northern Minerals seems to be in a fairly good position, in terms of cash burn, but we still think it's worthwhile considering how easily it could raise more money if it wanted to. 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).

Northern Minerals' cash burn of AU$8.5m is about 3.7% of its AU$228m market capitalisation. Given that is a rather small percentage, it would probably be really easy for the company to fund another year's growth by issuing some new shares to investors, or even by taking out a loan.

How Risky Is Northern Minerals' Cash Burn Situation?

It may already be apparent to you that we're relatively comfortable with the way Northern Minerals is burning through its cash. For example, we think its cash burn reduction suggests that the company is on a good path. Although we do find its falling revenue to be a bit of a negative, once we consider the other metrics mentioned in this article together, the overall picture is one we are comfortable with. Based on the factors mentioned in this article, we think its cash burn situation warrants some attention from shareholders, but we don't think they should be worried. On another note, Northern Minerals has 4 warning signs (and 2 which are a bit unpleasant) we think you should know about.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies insiders are buying, and this list of stocks growth stocks (according to analyst forecasts)

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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