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Companies Like Voyager Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VYGR) Could Be Quite Risky

Simply Wall St · 2d ago

There's no doubt that money can be made by owning shares of unprofitable businesses. 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. Nonetheless, only a fool would ignore the risk that a loss making company burns through its cash too quickly.

So should Voyager Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VYGR) shareholders be worried about its cash burn? In this report, we will consider the company's annual negative free cash flow, henceforth referring to it as the 'cash burn'. First, we'll determine its cash runway by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves.

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How Long Is Voyager Therapeutics' Cash Runway?

A company's cash runway is calculated by dividing its cash hoard by its cash burn. When Voyager Therapeutics last reported its June 2026 balance sheet in August 2026, it had zero debt and cash worth US$116m. In the last year, its cash burn was US$121m. That means it had a cash runway of around 11 months as of June 2026. 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. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.

debt-equity-history-analysis
NasdaqGS:VYGR Debt to Equity History October 9th 2026

Check out our latest analysis for Voyager Therapeutics

How Well Is Voyager Therapeutics Growing?

At first glance it's a bit worrying to see that Voyager Therapeutics actually boosted its cash burn by 4.8%, year on year. Also concerning, operating revenue was actually down by 19% in that time. Considering both these metrics, we're a little concerned about how the company is developing. 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 Voyager Therapeutics Raise Cash?

Voyager Therapeutics revenue is declining and its cash burn is increasing, so many may be considering its need to raise more cash in the future. Generally speaking, a listed business can raise new cash through issuing shares or taking on debt. 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 looking at a company's cash burn relative to its market capitalisation, we gain insight on how much shareholders would be diluted if the company needed to raise enough cash to cover another year's cash burn.

Voyager Therapeutics' cash burn of US$121m is about 80% of its US$152m market capitalisation. That's very high expenditure relative to the company's size, suggesting it is an extremely high risk stock.

How Risky Is Voyager Therapeutics' Cash Burn Situation?

We must admit that we don't think Voyager Therapeutics 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 burn relative to its market cap to be downright troublesome. After looking at that range of measures, we think shareholders should be extremely attentive to how the company is using its cash, as the cash burn makes us uncomfortable. On another note, we conducted an in-depth investigation of the company, and identified 3 warning signs for Voyager Therapeutics (1 is a bit unpleasant!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

If you would prefer to check out another company with better fundamentals, then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt or this list of stocks which are all forecast to grow.