04-03-2025
Here's Why We're Watching Repare Therapeutics' (NASDAQ:RPTX) Cash Burn Situation
Just because a business does not make any money, does not mean that the stock will go down. For example, biotech and mining exploration companies often lose money for years before finding success with a new treatment or mineral discovery. But while history lauds those rare successes, those that fail are often forgotten; who remembers
So should Repare Therapeutics (NASDAQ:RPTX) shareholders be worried about its cash burn? For the purpose of this article, we'll define cash burn as the amount of cash the company is spending each year to fund its growth (also called its negative free cash flow). We'll start by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves in order to calculate its cash runway.
See our latest analysis for Repare Therapeutics
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. In December 2024, Repare Therapeutics had US$153m in cash, and was debt-free. Importantly, its cash burn was US$76m over the trailing twelve months. Therefore, from December 2024 it had 2.0 years of cash runway. While that cash runway isn't too concerning, sensible holders would be peering into the distance, and considering what happens if the company runs out of cash. Depicted below, you can see how its cash holdings have changed over time.
We reckon the fact that Repare Therapeutics managed to shrink its cash burn by 41% over the last year is rather encouraging. And operating revenue was up by 4.6% too. Considering the factors above, the company doesn't fare badly when it comes to assessing how it is changing over time. 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.
While Repare Therapeutics 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. Commonly, a business will sell new shares in itself to raise cash and 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.
Since it has a market capitalisation of US$50m, Repare Therapeutics' US$76m in cash burn equates to about 152% of its market value. Given just how high that expenditure is, relative to the company's market value, we think there's an elevated risk of funding distress, and we would be very nervous about holding the stock.
Even though its cash burn relative to its market cap makes us a little nervous, we are compelled to mention that we thought Repare Therapeutics' cash runway was relatively promising. Summing up, we think the Repare Therapeutics' cash burn is a risk, based on the factors we mentioned in this article. Separately, we looked at different risks affecting the company and spotted 4 warning signs for Repare Therapeutics (of which 2 are significant!) you should know about.
Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies with significant insider holdings, and this list of stocks growth stocks (according to analyst forecasts)
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