Is Femasys (NASDAQ:FEMY) In A Good Position To Invest In Growth?

There's no doubt that money can be made by owning shares of unprofitable businesses. For example, although Amazon.com made losses for many years after listing, if you had bought and held the shares since 1999, you would have made a fortune. But the harsh reality is that very many loss making companies burn through all their cash and go bankrupt.

Given this risk, we thought we'd take a look at whether Femasys (NASDAQ:FEMY) shareholders should be worried about its cash burn. In this report, we will consider the company's annual negative free cash flow, henceforth referring to it as the 'cash burn'. First, we'll determine its cash runway by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves.

View our latest analysis for Femasys

Does Femasys Have A Long Cash Runway?

A company's cash runway is the amount of time it would take to burn through its cash reserves at its current cash burn rate. Femasys has such a small amount of debt that we'll set it aside, and focus on the US$22m in cash it held at March 2022. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through US$10.0m. Therefore, from March 2022 it had 2.2 years of cash runway. Arguably, that's a prudent and sensible length of runway to have. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.

How Well Is Femasys Growing?

Notably, Femasys actually ramped up its cash burn very hard and fast in the last year, by 131%, signifying heavy investment in the business. While operating revenue was up over the same period, the 5.8% gain gives us scant comfort. Taken together, we think these growth metrics are a little worrying. 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.

How Hard Would It Be For Femasys To Raise More Cash For Growth?

While Femasys seems to be in a fairly good position, 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. One of the main advantages held by publicly listed companies is that they can sell shares to investors to raise cash and fund growth. By comparing a company's annual cash burn to its total market capitalisation, we can estimate roughly how many shares it would have to issue in order to run the company for another year (at the same burn rate).

Femasys' cash burn of US$10.0m is about 50% of its US$20m market capitalisation. That's high expenditure relative to the value of the entire company, so if it does have to issue shares to fund more growth, that could end up really hurting shareholders returns (through significant dilution).

So, Should We Worry About Femasys' Cash Burn?

On this analysis of Femasys' cash burn, we think its cash runway was reassuring, while its increasing cash burn has us a bit worried. Summing up, we think the Femasys' cash burn is a risk, based on the factors we mentioned in this article. Its important for readers to be cognizant of the risks that can affect the company's operations, and we've picked out 3 warning signs for Femasys that investors should know when investing in the stock.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies insiders are buying, and this list of stocks growth stocks (according to analyst forecasts)

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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.