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. 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 should Power Metals (CVE:PWM) shareholders 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'. Let's start with an examination of the business' cash, relative to its cash burn.

View our latest analysis for Power Metals

When Might Power Metals Run Out Of Money?

A cash runway is defined as the length of time it would take a company to run out of money if it kept spending at its current rate of cash burn. As at February 2024, Power Metals had cash of CA$6.6m and no debt. Importantly, its cash burn was CA$1.7m over the trailing twelve months. So it had a cash runway of about 3.8 years from February 2024. There's no doubt that this is a reassuringly long runway. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.

How Is Power Metals' Cash Burn Changing Over Time?

Because Power Metals isn't currently generating revenue, we consider it an early-stage business. So while we can't look to sales to understand growth, we can look at how the cash burn is changing to understand how expenditure is trending over time. While it hardly paints a picture of imminent growth, the fact that it has reduced its cash burn by 32% over the last year suggests some degree of prudence. Admittedly, we're a bit cautious of Power Metals due to its lack of significant operating revenues. So we'd generally prefer stocks from this list of stocks that have analysts forecasting growth.

Can Power Metals Raise More Cash Easily?

Even though it has reduced its cash burn recently, shareholders should still consider how easy it would be for Power Metals to raise more cash in the future. 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. 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).