Here's Why Immuneering (NASDAQ:IMRX) Must Use Its Cash Wisely

Simply Wall St · 07/01 15:39

Even when a business is losing money, it's possible for shareholders to make money if they buy a good business at the right price. Indeed, Immuneering (NASDAQ:IMRX) stock is up 188% in the last year, providing strong gains for shareholders. But while the successes are well known, investors should not ignore the very many unprofitable companies that simply burn through all their cash and collapse.

So notwithstanding the buoyant share price, we think it's well worth asking whether Immuneering's cash burn is too risky. 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. The first step is to compare its cash burn with its cash reserves, to give us its 'cash runway'.

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When Might Immuneering Run Out Of Money?

A company's cash runway is calculated by dividing its cash hoard by its cash burn. In March 2025, Immuneering had US$36m in cash, and was debt-free. Importantly, its cash burn was US$54m over the trailing twelve months. Therefore, from March 2025 it had roughly 8 months of cash runway. To be frank, this kind of short runway puts us on edge, as it indicates the company must reduce its cash burn significantly, or else raise cash imminently. Depicted below, you can see how its cash holdings have changed over time.

debt-equity-history-analysis
NasdaqGM:IMRX Debt to Equity History July 1st 2025

See our latest analysis for Immuneering

How Is Immuneering's Cash Burn Changing Over Time?

Immuneering didn't record any revenue over the last year, indicating that it's an early stage company still developing its business. Nonetheless, we can still examine its cash burn trajectory as part of our assessment of its cash burn situation. With the cash burn rate up 6.5% in the last year, it seems that the company is ratcheting up investment in the business over time. However, the company's true cash runway will therefore be shorter than suggested above, if spending continues to increase. Clearly, however, the crucial factor is whether the company will grow its business going forward. 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 Immuneering Raise Cash?

While its cash burn is only increasing slightly, Immuneering shareholders should still consider the potential need for further cash, down the track. Generally speaking, a listed business can raise new cash through issuing shares or taking on debt. Commonly, a business will sell new shares in itself to raise cash and drive 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).

Immuneering has a market capitalisation of US$127m and burnt through US$54m last year, which is 42% of the company's market value. From this perspective, it seems that the company spent a huge amount relative to its market value, and we'd be very wary of a painful capital raising.

So, Should We Worry About Immuneering's Cash Burn?

We must admit that we don't think Immuneering is in a very strong position, when it comes to its cash burn. Although we can understand if some shareholders find its increasing cash burn acceptable, we can't ignore the fact that we consider its cash runway to be downright troublesome. Considering all the measures mentioned in this report, we reckon that its cash burn is fairly risky, and if we held shares we'd be watching like a hawk for any deterioration. Separately, we looked at different risks affecting the company and spotted 5 warning signs for Immuneering (of which 3 shouldn't be ignored!) you should know about.

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