Just because a business does not make any money, does not mean that the stock will go down. 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. 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 CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP) 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'.

Check out our latest analysis for CRISPR Therapeutics

You can calculate a company's cash runway by dividing the amount of cash it has by the rate at which it is spending that cash. In June 2019, CRISPR Therapeutics had US$428m in cash, and was debt-free. In the last year, its cash burn was US$133m. That means it had a cash runway of about 3.2 years as of June 2019. Importantly, though, analysts think that CRISPR Therapeutics will reach cashflow breakeven before then. If that happens, then the length of its cash runway, today, would become a moot point. Depicted below, you can see how its cash holdings have changed over time.

NasdaqGM:CRSP Historical Debt, September 21st 2019

CRISPR Therapeutics boosted investment sharply in the last year, with cash burn ramping by 61%. That's bad enough, but the operating revenue drop of 96% points to a period of uncertainty and, quite potentially, heightened risk for holders." In light of the above-mentioned, we're pretty wary of the trajectory the company seems to be on. While the past is always worth studying, it is the future that matters most of all. So you might want to take a peek at how much the company is expected to grow in the next few years.

Even though it seems like CRISPR Therapeutics is developing its business nicely, we still like to consider how easily it could raise more money to accelerate growth. Companies can raise capital through either debt or equity. Commonly, a business will sell new shares in itself to raise cash to drive growth. We can compare a company's cash burn to its market capitalisation to get a sense for how many new shares a company would have to issue to fund one year's operations.

CRISPR Therapeutics has a market capitalisation of US$2.6b and burnt through US$133m last year, which is 5.1% of the company's market value. That's a low proportion, so we figure the company would be able to raise more cash to fund growth, with a little dilution, or even to simply borrow some money.

It may already be apparent to you that we're relatively comfortable with the way CRISPR Therapeutics is burning through its cash. For example, we think its cash runway 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. It's clearly very positive to see that analysts are forecasting the company will break even fairly soon After considering a range of factors in this article, we're pretty relaxed about its cash burn, since the company seems to be in a good position to continue to fund its growth. For us, it's always important to consider risks around cash burn rates. But investors should look at a whole range of factors when researching a new stock. For example, it could be interesting to see how much the CRISPR Therapeutics CEO receives in total remuneration.

Story continues

Of course CRISPR Therapeutics may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this freecollection of companies boasting high return on equity, or this list of stocks that insiders are buying.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. 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. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.

See more here:
CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP) Is In A Strong Position To Grow Its Business - Yahoo Finance

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