With the business potentially at an important milestone, we thought we'd take a closer look at Exact Sciences Corporation's (NASDAQ:EXAS) future prospects. Exact Sciences Corporation provides cancer screening and diagnostic test products in the United States and internationally. The US$11b market-cap company posted a loss in its most recent financial year of US$204m and a latest trailing-twelve-month loss of US$214m leading to an even wider gap between loss and breakeven. The most pressing concern for investors is Exact Sciences' path to profitability – when will it breakeven? In this article, we will touch on the expectations for the company's growth and when analysts expect it to become profitable.

Consensus from 23 of the American Biotechs analysts is that Exact Sciences is on the verge of breakeven. They anticipate the company to incur a final loss in 2025, before generating positive profits of US$60m in 2026. So, the company is predicted to breakeven approximately 2 years from now. What rate will the company have to grow year-on-year in order to breakeven on this date? Using a line of best fit, we calculated an average annual growth rate of 73%, which is rather optimistic! Should the business grow at a slower rate, it will become profitable at a later date than expected.

We're not going to go through company-specific developments for Exact Sciences given that this is a high-level summary, but, take into account that typically a biotech has lumpy cash flows which are contingent on the product type and stage of development the company is in. So, a high growth rate is not out of the ordinary, particularly when a company is in a period of investment.

Before we wrap up, there’s one issue worth mentioning. Exact Sciences currently has a relatively high level of debt. Generally, the rule of thumb is debt shouldn’t exceed 40% of your equity, which in Exact Sciences' case is 80%. A higher level of debt requires more stringent capital management which increases the risk in investing in the loss-making company.

Next Steps:

This article is not intended to be a comprehensive analysis on Exact Sciences, so if you are interested in understanding the company at a deeper level, take a look at Exact Sciences' company page on Simply Wall St. We've also put together a list of pertinent aspects you should further research:

1. Valuation: What is Exact Sciences 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 Exact Sciences 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 Exact Sciences’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.

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.