With the business potentially at an important milestone, we thought we'd take a closer look at Talkspace, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:TALK) future prospects. Talkspace, Inc. operates as a virtual behavioral healthcare company in the United States. The US$295m market-cap company's loss lessened since it announced a US$19m loss in the full financial year, compared to the latest trailing-twelve-month loss of US$7.7m, as it approaches breakeven. The most pressing concern for investors is Talkspace's path to profitability – when will it breakeven? We've put together a brief outline of industry analyst expectations for the company, its year of breakeven and its implied growth rate.

Talkspace is bordering on breakeven, according to the 3 American Healthcare analysts. They expect the company to post a final loss in 2024, before turning a profit of US$7.3m in 2025. The company is therefore projected to breakeven just over a year from today. In order to meet this breakeven date, we calculated the rate at which the company must grow year-on-year. It turns out an average annual growth rate of 62% is expected, which signals high confidence from analysts. If this rate turns out to be too aggressive, the company may become profitable much later than analysts predict.

Given this is a high-level overview, we won't go into details of Talkspace's upcoming projects, though, take into account that generally a high forecast growth rate is not unusual for a company that is currently undergoing an investment period.

One thing we'd like to point out is that Talkspace has no debt on its balance sheet, which is rare for a loss-making growth company, which usually has a high level of debt relative to its equity. This means that the company has been operating purely on its equity investment and has no debt burden. This aspect reduces the risk around investing in the loss-making company.

Next Steps:

There are too many aspects of Talkspace to cover in one brief article, but the key fundamentals for the company can all be found in one place – Talkspace's company page on Simply Wall St. We've also put together a list of essential factors you should further research:

1. Valuation: What is Talkspace worth today? Has the future growth potential already been factored into the price? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether Talkspace is currently mispriced by the market.
2. Management Team: An experienced management team on the helm increases our confidence in the business – take a look at who sits on Talkspace's board and the CEO's background.
3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.

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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.