When Will Fluidigm Corporation (NASDAQ:FLDM) Turn A Profit?

Fluidigm Corporation's (NASDAQ:FLDM): Fluidigm Corporation creates, manufactures, and markets technologies and tools for life sciences research in the United States and Europe. The US$196.53m market-cap posted a loss in its most recent financial year of -US$60.53m and a latest trailing-twelve-month loss of -US$56.58m shrinking the gap between loss and breakeven. The most pressing concern for investors is FLDM’s path to profitability – when will it breakeven? Below I will provide a high-level summary of the industry analysts’ expectations for FLDM.

Expectation from Life Sciences analysts is FLDM is on the verge of breakeven. They anticipate the company to incur a final loss in -1, before generating positive profits of US$0 in . So, FLDM is predicted to breakeven approximately a couple of months from now! What rate will FLDM have to grow year-on-year in order to breakeven on this date? Using a line of best fit, I calculated an average annual growth rate of 13.74%, which is relatively reasonable. Should the business grow at a slower rate, it will become profitable at a later date than expected.

Given this is a high-level overview, I won’t go into details of FLDM’s upcoming projects, but, take into account that generally life science companies, depending on the stage of product development, have irregular periods of cash flow. This means, a double-digit growth rate is not abnormal as the company is beginning to reap the benefits of earlier investments.

Before I wrap up, there’s one issue worth mentioning. FLDM currently has a debt-to-equity ratio of over 2x. Typically, debt shouldn’t exceed 40% of your equity, which in FLDM’s case, it has significantly overshot. A higher level of debt requires more stringent capital management which increases the risk around investing in the loss-making company.

Next Steps:

There are too many aspects of FLDM to cover in one brief article, but the key fundamentals for the company can all be found in one place – FLDM’s company page on Simply Wall St. I’ve also compiled a list of important aspects you should further examine:

1. Historical Track Record: What has FLDM's performance 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.
2. Management Team: An experienced management team on the helm increases our confidence in the business – take a look at who sits on Fluidigm’s board and the CEO’s back ground.
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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Simply Wall St analyst Simply Wall St and Simply Wall St have no position in any of the companies mentioned. This article 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.