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Avidity Biosciences (NASDAQ:RNA) Is In A Good Position To Deliver On Growth Plans

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 history lauds those rare successes, those that fail are often forgotten; who remembers Pets.com?

So, the natural question for Avidity Biosciences (NASDAQ:RNA) shareholders is whether they should be concerned by its rate of cash burn. For the purposes of this article, cash burn is the annual rate at which an unprofitable company spends cash to fund its growth; its negative free cash flow. We'll start by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves in order to calculate its cash runway.

Check out our latest analysis for Avidity Biosciences

How Long Is Avidity Biosciences' Cash Runway?

A company's cash runway is calculated by dividing its cash hoard by its cash burn. As at June 2020, Avidity Biosciences had cash of US$352m and such minimal debt that we can ignore it for the purposes of this analysis. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through US$26m. So it had a very long cash runway of many years from June 2020. Even though this is but one measure of the company's cash burn, the thought of such a long cash runway warms our bellies in a comforting way. Depicted below, you can see how its cash holdings have changed over time.

debt-equity-history-analysis
debt-equity-history-analysis

How Is Avidity Biosciences' Cash Burn Changing Over Time?

In our view, Avidity Biosciences doesn't yet produce significant amounts of operating revenue, since it reported just US$5.0m in the last twelve months. Therefore, for the purposes of this analysis we'll focus on how the cash burn is tracking. Remarkably, it actually increased its cash burn by 594% in the last year. We certainly hope for shareholders' sake that the money is well spent, because that kind of expenditure increase always makes us nervous. 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 Easily Can Avidity Biosciences Raise Cash?

Given its cash burn trajectory, Avidity Biosciences shareholders may wish to consider how easily it could raise more cash, despite its solid cash runway. 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.

Since it has a market capitalisation of US$1.3b, Avidity Biosciences' US$26m in cash burn equates to about 2.1% of its market value. So it could almost certainly just borrow a little to fund another year's growth, or else easily raise the cash by issuing a few shares.

How Risky Is Avidity Biosciences' Cash Burn Situation?

It may already be apparent to you that we're relatively comfortable with the way Avidity Biosciences is burning through its cash. In particular, we think its cash runway stands out as evidence that the company is well on top of its spending. Although we do find its increasing cash burn 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. After taking into account the various metrics mentioned in this report, we're pretty comfortable with how the company is spending its cash, as it seems on track to meet its needs over the medium term. On another note, we conducted an in-depth investigation of the company, and identified 4 warning signs for Avidity Biosciences (1 makes us a bit uncomfortable!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

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

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. 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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