We can readily understand why investors are attracted to unprofitable companies. By way of example, Goldquest Mining (CVE:GQC) has seen its share price rise 105% over the last year, delighting many shareholders. Having said that, unprofitable companies are risky because they could potentially burn through all their cash and become distressed.

So notwithstanding the buoyant share price, we think it's well worth asking whether Goldquest Mining's cash burn is too risky. In this report, we will consider the company's annual negative free cash flow, henceforth referring to it as the 'cash burn'. The first step is to compare its cash burn with its cash reserves, to give us its 'cash runway'.

Check out our latest analysis for Goldquest Mining

How Long Is Goldquest Mining's Cash Runway?

A company's cash runway is calculated by dividing its cash hoard by its cash burn. When Goldquest Mining last reported its December 2023 balance sheet in April 2024, it had zero debt and cash worth CA$9.4m. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through CA$2.4m. That means it had a cash runway of about 3.9 years as of December 2023. There's no doubt that this is a reassuringly long runway. Depicted below, you can see how its cash holdings have changed over time.

How Is Goldquest Mining's Cash Burn Changing Over Time?

Because Goldquest Mining 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. Over the last year its cash burn actually increased by 6.3%, which suggests that management are increasing investment in future growth, but not too quickly. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but investors should be mindful of the fact that will shorten the cash runway. Goldquest Mining makes us a little nervous due to its lack of substantial operating revenue. So we'd generally prefer stocks from this list of stocks that have analysts forecasting growth.

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

Since its cash burn is increasing (albeit only slightly), Goldquest Mining shareholders should still be mindful of the possibility it will require more cash in the future. 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).