Immutep Limited (ASX:IMM) is possibly approaching a major achievement in its business, so we would like to shine some light on the company. Immutep Limited, a biotech company, engages in the research and development of pharmaceutical product candidates. The AU$442m market-cap company announced a latest loss of AU$30m on 30 June 2021 for its most recent financial year result. The most pressing concern for investors is Immutep's 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.

View our latest analysis for Immutep

According to the 3 industry analysts covering Immutep, the consensus is that breakeven is near. They anticipate the company to incur a final loss in 2023, before generating positive profits of AU$36m in 2024. The company is therefore projected to breakeven around 3 years from today. How fast will the company have to grow each year in order to reach the breakeven point by 2024? Working backwards from analyst estimates, it turns out that they expect the company to grow 64% year-on-year, on average, which signals high confidence from analysts. 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 Immutep given that this is a high-level summary, but, bear in mind that generally biotechs, depending on the stage of product development, have irregular periods of cash flow. This means that a high growth rate is not unusual, especially if the company is currently in an investment period.

One thing we’d like to point out is that The company has managed its capital prudently, with debt making up 3.4% of equity. This means that it has predominantly funded its operations from equity capital, and its low debt obligation reduces the risk around investing in the loss-making company.

Next Steps:

There are key fundamentals of Immutep which are not covered in this article, but we must stress again that this is merely a basic overview. For a more comprehensive look at Immutep, take a look at Immutep's company page on Simply Wall St. We've also put together a list of essential factors you should look at:

1. Valuation: What is Immutep 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 Immutep 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 Immutep’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.

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