Companies Like Intra-Cellular Therapies (NASDAQ:ITCI) 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 while the successes are well known, investors should not ignore the very many unprofitable companies that simply burn through all their cash and collapse.

So, the natural question for Intra-Cellular Therapies (NASDAQ:ITCI) shareholders is whether they should be concerned by its rate of 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'.

See our latest analysis for Intra-Cellular Therapies

When Might Intra-Cellular Therapies Run Out Of Money?

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. When Intra-Cellular Therapies last reported its balance sheet in March 2022, it had zero debt and cash worth US$772m. In the last year, its cash burn was US$296m. That means it had a cash runway of about 2.6 years as of March 2022. Notably, analysts forecast that Intra-Cellular Therapies will break even (at a free cash flow level) in about 3 years. So there's a very good chance it won't need more cash, when you consider the burn rate will be reducing in that period. The image below shows how its cash balance has been changing over the last few years.

How Well Is Intra-Cellular Therapies Growing?

At first glance it's a bit worrying to see that Intra-Cellular Therapies actually boosted its cash burn by 30%, year on year. Given that its operating revenue increased 174% in that time, it seems the company has reason to think its expenditure is working well to drive growth. If revenue is maintained once spending on growth decreases, that could well pay off! It seems to be growing nicely. While the past is always worth studying, it is the future that matters most of all. For that reason, it makes a lot of sense to take a look at our analyst forecasts for the company.

Can Intra-Cellular Therapies Raise More Cash Easily?

We are certainly impressed with the progress Intra-Cellular Therapies has made over the last year, but it is also worth considering how costly it would be if it wanted to raise more cash to fund faster growth. Issuing new shares, or taking on debt, are the most common ways for a listed company to raise more money for its business. One of the main advantages held by publicly listed companies is that they can sell shares to investors to raise cash and fund 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.

Intra-Cellular Therapies' cash burn of US$296m is about 5.6% of its US$5.3b market capitalisation. 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.

How Risky Is Intra-Cellular Therapies' Cash Burn Situation?

As you can probably tell by now, we're not too worried about Intra-Cellular Therapies' cash burn. For example, we think its revenue growth suggests that the company is on a good path. Although its increasing cash burn does give us reason for pause, the other metrics we discussed in this article form a positive picture overall. Shareholders can take heart from the fact that analysts are forecasting it will reach breakeven. 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. An in-depth examination of risks revealed 1 warning sign for Intra-Cellular Therapies that readers should think about before committing capital to this stock.

If you would prefer to check out another company with better fundamentals, then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt or this list of stocks which are all forecast to grow.

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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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