Companies Like Synlogic (NASDAQ:SYBX) Are In A Position To Invest In Growth

There's no doubt that money can be made by owning shares of unprofitable businesses. For example, although software-as-a-service business Salesforce.com lost money for years while it grew recurring revenue, if you held shares since 2005, you'd have done very well indeed. But the harsh reality is that very many loss making companies burn through all their cash and go bankrupt.

So should Synlogic (NASDAQ:SYBX) shareholders 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'.

See our latest analysis for Synlogic

When Might Synlogic Run Out Of Money?

A company's cash runway is calculated by dividing its cash hoard by its cash burn. When Synlogic last reported its balance sheet in June 2021, it had zero debt and cash worth US$115m. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through US$44m. So it had a cash runway of about 2.6 years from June 2021. That's decent, giving the company a couple years to develop its business. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.

How Is Synlogic's Cash Burn Changing Over Time?

Whilst it's great to see that Synlogic has already begun generating revenue from operations, last year it only produced US$246k, so we don't think it is generating significant revenue, at this point. Therefore, for the purposes of this analysis we'll focus on how the cash burn is tracking. It seems likely that the business is content with its current spending, as the cash burn rate stayed steady over the last twelve months. Clearly, however, the crucial factor is whether the company will grow its business going forward. So you might want to take a peek at how much the company is expected to grow in the next few years.

How Easily Can Synlogic Raise Cash?

While Synlogic 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. Companies can raise capital through either debt or equity. Many companies end up issuing new shares to fund future 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.

Synlogic has a market capitalisation of US$205m and burnt through US$44m last year, which is 21% of the company's market value. That's fairly notable cash burn, so if the company had to sell shares to cover the cost of another year's operations, shareholders would suffer some costly dilution.

How Risky Is Synlogic's Cash Burn Situation?

On this analysis of Synlogic's cash burn, we think its cash runway was reassuring, while its cash burn relative to its market cap has us a bit worried. 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, we conducted an in-depth investigation of the company, and identified 5 warning signs for Synlogic (3 can't be ignored!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

Of course Synlogic 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.

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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