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Companies Like C3.ai (NYSE:AI) Can Afford To Invest In Growth

Companies Like C3.ai (NYSE:AI) Can Afford To Invest In Growth

像 C3.ai(纽约证券交易所代码:AI)这样的公司有能力投资增长
Simply Wall St ·  05/21 22:04

We can readily understand why investors are attracted to unprofitable companies. 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 while history lauds those rare successes, those that fail are often forgotten; who remembers Pets.com?

我们很容易理解为什么投资者会被无利可图的公司所吸引。例如,尽管亚马逊在上市后连续多年亏损,但如果你自1999年以来购买并持有股票,你本可以发大财。但是,尽管历史称赞这些罕见的成功,但失败的成功往往会被遗忘;谁还记得Pets.com呢?

So, the natural question for C3.ai (NYSE:AI) shareholders is whether they should be concerned by its rate of 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.

因此,C3.ai(纽约证券交易所代码:AI)股东面临的自然问题是他们是否应该担心其现金消耗率。就本文而言,我们将现金消耗定义为公司每年为其增长提供资金的现金金额(也称为负自由现金流)。首先,我们将将其现金消耗与现金储备进行比较,以计算其现金流量。

How Long Is C3.ai's Cash Runway?

C3.ai 的 Cash Runway 有多长?

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 January 2024, C3.ai had US$723m in cash, and was debt-free. In the last year, its cash burn was US$93m. Therefore, from January 2024 it had 7.8 years of cash runway. Notably, however, analysts think that C3.ai will break even (at a free cash flow level) before then. If that happens, then the length of its cash runway, today, would become a moot point. The image below shows how its cash balance has been changing over the last few years.

现金流道的定义是,如果公司保持目前的现金消耗率,则需要多长时间才能耗尽资金。2024 年 1 月,C3.ai 拥有7.23亿美元的现金,并且没有债务。去年,其现金消耗为9300万美元。因此,从2024年1月起,它的现金流为7.8年。然而,值得注意的是,分析师认为,在此之前,C3.ai 将实现收支平衡(在自由现金流水平上)。如果发生这种情况,那么今天其现金跑道的长度将成为一个有争议的问题。下图显示了其现金余额在过去几年中的变化。

debt-equity-history-analysis
NYSE:AI Debt to Equity History May 21st 2024
纽约证券交易所:AI 债务与股本的比率历史 2024 年 5 月 21 日

How Well Is C3.ai Growing?

C3.ai 的增长情况如何?

C3.ai managed to reduce its cash burn by 57% over the last twelve months, which suggests it's on the right flight path. And while hardly exciting, it was still good to see revenue growth of 11% during that time. We think it is growing rather well, upon reflection. 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.

在过去的十二个月中,C3.ai 设法将其现金消耗减少了57%,这表明它走上了正确的飞行道路。尽管不令人兴奋,但在此期间收入增长11%仍然是件好事。经过反思,我们认为它的增长相当不错。虽然过去总是值得研究的,但最重要的是未来。出于这个原因,看看我们的分析师对公司的预测很有意义。

How Easily Can C3.ai Raise Cash?

C3.ai 如何轻松筹集资金?

While C3.ai seems to be in a decent position, we reckon it is still worth thinking about how easily it could raise more cash, if that proved desirable. 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. 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.

尽管 C3.ai 似乎处于不错的境地,但我们认为如果事实证明可取的话,它能多么容易地筹集更多现金,还是值得考虑的。公司可以通过债务或股权筹集资金。上市公司的主要优势之一是,它们可以向投资者出售股票以筹集现金和为增长提供资金。我们可以将公司的现金消耗与其市值进行比较,以了解公司必须发行多少新股才能为一年的运营提供资金。

C3.ai has a market capitalisation of US$3.2b and burnt through US$93m last year, which is 2.9% of the company's market value. That means it could easily issue a few shares to fund more growth, and might well be in a position to borrow cheaply.

C3.ai 的市值为32亿美元,去年烧掉了9300万美元,占公司市值的2.9%。这意味着它可以轻松发行几股股票来为更多的增长提供资金,并且很可能有能力廉价地借款。

So, Should We Worry About C3.ai's Cash Burn?

那么,我们应该担心 C3.ai 的现金消耗吗?

It may already be apparent to you that we're relatively comfortable with the way C3.ai is burning through its cash. For example, we think its cash runway suggests that the company is on a good path. On this analysis its revenue growth was its weakest feature, but we are not concerned about it. It's clearly very positive to see that analysts are forecasting the company will break even fairly soon. After considering a range of factors in this article, we're pretty relaxed about its cash burn, since the company seems to be in a good position to continue to fund its growth. Taking a deeper dive, we've spotted 3 warning signs for C3.ai you should be aware of, and 1 of them makes us a bit uncomfortable.

你可能已经很明显,我们对 C3.ai 消耗现金的方式相对满意。例如,我们认为其现金流表明该公司走上了一条不错的道路。根据这项分析,其收入增长是其最薄弱的特征,但我们对此并不担心。分析师预测该公司将很快实现收支平衡,这显然是非常积极的。在考虑了本文中的一系列因素之后,我们对其现金消耗感到非常放松,因为该公司似乎处于继续为其增长提供资金的有利地位。深入研究,我们发现了 3 个你应该注意的 C3.ai 警告信号,其中 1 个让我们有点不舒服。

Of course C3.ai 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 with high insider ownership.

当然,C3.ai 可能不是最值得购买的股票。因此,你可能希望看到这份拥有高股本回报率的公司的免费集合,或者这份内部所有权高的股票清单。

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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.

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Simply Wall St的这篇文章本质上是笼统的。我们仅使用公正的方法根据历史数据和分析师的预测提供评论,我们的文章无意作为财务建议。它不构成买入或卖出任何股票的建议,也没有考虑到您的目标或财务状况。我们的目标是为您提供由基本数据驱动的长期重点分析。请注意,我们的分析可能不考虑最新的价格敏感型公司公告或定性材料。简而言之,华尔街没有持有任何上述股票的头寸。

译文内容由第三方软件翻译。


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