With the business potentially at an important milestone, we thought we'd take a closer look at Aytu BioPharma, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AYTU) future prospects. Aytu BioPharma, Inc., a pharmaceutical company, focuses on commercializing novel therapeutics drugs in the United States and internationally. The US$8.5m market-cap company’s loss lessened since it announced a US$16m loss in the full financial year, compared to the latest trailing-twelve-month loss of US$7.2m, as it approaches breakeven. The most pressing concern for investors is Aytu BioPharma's path to profitability – when will it breakeven? 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 Aytu BioPharma

According to some industry analysts covering Aytu BioPharma, breakeven is near. They anticipate the company to incur a final loss in 2024, before generating positive profits of US$5.8m in 2025. Therefore, the company is expected to breakeven roughly 12 months from now or less. How fast will the company have to grow to reach the consensus forecasts that anticipate breakeven by 2025? Working backwards from analyst estimates, it turns out that they expect the company to grow 77% 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.

Underlying developments driving Aytu BioPharma's growth isn’t the focus of this broad overview, though, keep in mind that generally a pharma company has lumpy cash flows which are contingent on the drug and stage of product development the business is in. This means, large upcoming growth rates are not abnormal as the company is beginning to reap the benefits of earlier investments.

Before we wrap up, there’s one issue worth mentioning. Aytu BioPharma currently has a relatively high level of debt. Generally, the rule of thumb is debt shouldn’t exceed 40% of your equity, which in Aytu BioPharma's case is 52%. Note that a higher debt obligation increases the risk in investing in the loss-making company.

Next Steps:

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

1. Historical Track Record: What has Aytu BioPharma's performance been like over the past? Go into more detail in the past track record analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of our analysis for more clarity.
2. Management Team: An experienced management team on the helm increases our confidence in the business – take a look at who sits on Aytu BioPharma'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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.