With the business potentially at an important milestone, we thought we'd take a closer look at Akebia Therapeutics, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AKBA) future prospects. Akebia Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of therapeutics for patients with kidney diseases. With the latest financial year loss of US$52m and a trailing-twelve-month loss of US$43m, the US$253m market-cap company alleviated its loss by moving closer towards its target of breakeven. Many investors are wondering about the rate at which Akebia Therapeutics will turn a profit, with the big question being "when will the company breakeven?" We've put together a brief outline of industry analyst expectations for the company, its year of breakeven and its implied growth rate.

Consensus from 3 of the American Biotechs analysts is that Akebia Therapeutics is on the verge of breakeven. They anticipate the company to incur a final loss in 2025, before generating positive profits of US$38m in 2026. Therefore, the company is expected to breakeven roughly 2 years 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 61%, which is rather optimistic! If this rate turns out to be too aggressive, the company may become profitable much later than analysts predict.

Underlying developments driving Akebia Therapeutics' growth isn't the focus of this broad overview, however, keep in mind that typically 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 would like to bring into light with Akebia Therapeutics is it currently has negative equity on its balance sheet. This can sometimes arise from accounting methods used to deal with accumulated losses from prior years, which are viewed as liabilities carried forward until it cancels out in the future. Oftentimes, losses exist only on paper but other times, it can be a red flag.

Next Steps:

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

1. Historical Track Record: What has Akebia Therapeutics' 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 Akebia Therapeutics' 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.