Western Uranium & Vanadium (CSE:WUC) Is In A Strong Position To Grow Its Business

There's no doubt that money can be made by owning shares of unprofitable businesses. Indeed, Western Uranium & Vanadium (CSE:WUC) stock is up 317% in the last year, providing strong gains for shareholders. But the harsh reality is that very many loss making companies burn through all their cash and go bankrupt.

So notwithstanding the buoyant share price, we think it's well worth asking whether Western Uranium & Vanadium's cash burn is too risky. 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. First, we'll determine its cash runway by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves.

See our latest analysis for Western Uranium & Vanadium

Does Western Uranium & Vanadium 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. In March 2021, Western Uranium & Vanadium had US$4.1m in cash, and was debt-free. In the last year, its cash burn was US$1.3m. So it had a cash runway of about 3.1 years from March 2021. A runway of this length affords the company the time and space it needs to develop the business. Depicted below, you can see how its cash holdings have changed over time.

How Is Western Uranium & Vanadium's Cash Burn Changing Over Time?

Whilst it's great to see that Western Uranium & Vanadium has already begun generating revenue from operations, last year it only produced US$60k, 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. While it hardly paints a picture of imminent growth, the fact that it has reduced its cash burn by 38% over the last year suggests some degree of prudence. Admittedly, we're a bit cautious of Western Uranium & Vanadium 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 Hard Would It Be For Western Uranium & Vanadium To Raise More Cash For Growth?

While Western Uranium & Vanadium is showing a solid reduction in its cash burn, it's still worth considering how easily it could raise more cash, even just to fuel faster growth. Generally speaking, a listed business can raise new cash through issuing shares or taking on debt. One of the main advantages held by publicly listed companies is that they can sell shares to investors to raise cash and fund 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.

Western Uranium & Vanadium has a market capitalisation of US$66m and burnt through US$1.3m last year, which is 2.0% of the company's 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 Western Uranium & Vanadium's Cash Burn Situation?

As you can probably tell by now, we're not too worried about Western Uranium & Vanadium's cash burn. For example, we think its cash runway suggests that the company is on a good path. And even though its cash burn reduction wasn't quite as impressive, it was still a positive. Looking at all the measures in this article, together, we're not worried about its rate of cash burn; the company seems well on top of its medium-term spending needs. Separately, we looked at different risks affecting the company and spotted 5 warning signs for Western Uranium & Vanadium (of which 2 are concerning!) you should know about.

Of course Western Uranium & Vanadium 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.

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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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