With the business potentially at an important milestone, we thought we'd take a closer look at Iris Energy Limited's (NASDAQ:IREN) future prospects. Iris Energy Limited owns and operates bitcoin mining data centers. The US$1.4b market-cap company announced a latest loss of US$29m on 30 June 2024 for its most recent financial year result. The most pressing concern for investors is Iris Energy's path to profitability – when will it breakeven? Below we will provide a high-level summary of the industry analysts' expectations for the company.

Consensus from 8 of the American Software analysts is that Iris Energy is on the verge of breakeven. They anticipate the company to incur a final loss in 2024, before generating positive profits of US$103m in 2025. Therefore, the company is expected to breakeven roughly a year from now or less! We calculated the rate at which the company must grow to meet the consensus forecasts predicting breakeven within 12 months. It turns out an average annual growth rate of 98% is expected, which is extremely buoyant. If this rate turns out to be too aggressive, the company may become profitable much later than analysts predict.

Underlying developments driving Iris Energy's growth isn't the focus of this broad overview, however, keep in mind that typically a high growth rate is not out of the ordinary, particularly when a company is in a period of investment.

One thing we'd like to point out is that Iris Energy has no debt on its balance sheet, which is quite unusual for a cash-burning 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:

This article is not intended to be a comprehensive analysis on Iris Energy, so if you are interested in understanding the company at a deeper level, take a look at Iris Energy's company page on Simply Wall St. We've also compiled a list of key factors you should further examine:

1. Valuation: What is Iris Energy 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 Iris Energy 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 Iris Energy'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.