Newron Pharmaceuticals S.p.A. (VTX:NWRN): Time For A Financial Health Check

The direct benefit for Newron Pharmaceuticals S.p.A. (VTX:NWRN), which sports a zero-debt capital structure, to include debt in its capital structure is the reduced cost of capital. However, the trade-off is NWRN will have to adhere to stricter debt covenants and have less financial flexibility. Zero-debt can alleviate some risk associated with the company meeting debt obligations, but this doesn’t automatically mean NWRN has outstanding financial strength. I will go over a basic overview of the stock's financial health, which I believe provides a ballpark estimate of their financial health status.

View our latest analysis for Newron Pharmaceuticals

Is NWRN right in choosing financial flexibility over lower cost of capital?

There are well-known benefits of including debt in capital structure, primarily a lower cost of capital. But the downside of having debt in a company’s balance sheet is the debtholder’s higher claim on its assets in the case of liquidation, as well as stricter capital management requirements. Either NWRN does not have access to cheap capital, or it may believe this trade-off is not worth it. This makes sense only if the company has a competitive edge and is growing fast off its equity capital. Opposite to the high growth we were expecting, NWRN’s negative revenue growth of -74% hardly justifies opting for zero-debt. If the decline sustains, it may find it hard to raise debt at an acceptable cost.

Can NWRN pay its short-term liabilities?

Given zero long-term debt on its balance sheet, Newron Pharmaceuticals has no solvency issues, which is used to describe the company’s ability to meet its long-term obligations. But another important aspect of financial health is liquidity: the company’s ability to meet short-term obligations, including payments to suppliers and employees. At the current liabilities level of €3.5m, the company has been able to meet these commitments with a current assets level of €65m, leading to a 18.61x current account ratio. Having said that, many consider a ratio above 3x to be high.

Next Steps:

NWRN is a fast-growing firm, which supports having have zero-debt and financial freedom to continue to ramp up growth. This may mean this is an optimal capital structure for the business, given that it is also meeting its short-term commitment. Moving forward, NWRN's financial situation may change. I admit this is a fairly basic analysis for NWRN's financial health. Other important fundamentals need to be considered alongside. I recommend you continue to research Newron Pharmaceuticals to get a better picture of the stock by looking at:

1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for NWRN’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for NWRN’s outlook.
2. Historical Performance: What has NWRN's returns been like over the past? Go into more detail in the past track record analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of our analysis for more clarity.
3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.

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