With the business potentially at an important milestone, we thought we'd take a closer look at Intevac, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:IVAC) future prospects. Intevac, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the designing, developing, and manufacturing thin-film processing systems in the United States, Europe, and Asia. The US$94m market-cap company’s loss lessened since it announced a US$13m loss in the full financial year, compared to the latest trailing-twelve-month loss of US$10m, as it approaches breakeven. As path to profitability is the topic on Intevac's investors mind, we've decided to gauge market sentiment. We've put together a brief outline of industry analyst expectations for the company, its year of breakeven and its implied growth rate.

Check out our latest analysis for Intevac

Intevac is bordering on breakeven, according to the 2 American Tech analysts. They anticipate the company to incur a final loss in 2025, before generating positive profits of US$6.9m in 2026. The company is therefore projected to breakeven just over a year from today. 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 88%, which is extremely buoyant. If this rate turns out to be too aggressive, the company may become profitable much later than analysts predict.

We're not going to go through company-specific developments for Intevac given that this is a high-level summary, but, take into account that by and large a high forecast growth rate is not unusual for a company that is currently undergoing an investment period.

One thing we’d like to point out is that Intevac has no debt on its balance sheet, which is quite unusual for a cash-burning growth company, which typically has high debt relative to its equity. The company currently operates purely off its shareholder funding and has no debt obligation, reducing concerns around repayments and making it a less risky investment.

Next Steps:

There are too many aspects of Intevac to cover in one brief article, but the key fundamentals for the company can all be found in one place – Intevac's company page on Simply Wall St. We've also put together a list of essential aspects you should further examine:

1. Valuation: What is Intevac 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 Intevac 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 Intevac’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.