With the business potentially at an important milestone, we thought we'd take a closer look at Despegar.com, Corp.'s (NYSE:DESP) future prospects. Despegar.com, Corp., an online travel company, provides a range of travel and travel-related products to leisure and corporate travelers through its websites and mobile applications in Latin America and the United States. The company's loss has recently broadened since it announced a US$6.6m loss in the full financial year, compared to the latest trailing-twelve-month loss of US$13m, moving it further away from breakeven. The most pressing concern for investors is Despegar.com's path to profitability – when will it breakeven? Below we will provide a high-level summary of the industry analysts' expectations for the company.

According to the 6 industry analysts covering Despegar.com, the consensus is that breakeven is near. They anticipate the company to incur a final loss in 2023, before generating positive profits of US$67m in 2024. 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 2024? Working backwards from analyst estimates, it turns out that they expect the company to grow 39% year-on-year, on average, which is extremely buoyant. If this rate turns out to be too aggressive, the company may become profitable much later than analysts predict.

Given this is a high-level overview, we won't go into details of Despegar.com's upcoming projects, though, keep in mind that generally a high forecast growth rate is not unusual for a company that is currently undergoing an investment period.

Before we wrap up, there's one issue worth mentioning. Despegar.com currently has a relatively high level of debt. Typically, debt shouldn't exceed 40% of your equity, which in Despegar.com's case is 52%. A higher level of debt requires more stringent capital management which increases the risk around investing in the loss-making company.

Next Steps:

There are key fundamentals of Despegar.com 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 Despegar.com, take a look at Despegar.com's company page on Simply Wall St. We've also put together a list of important aspects you should look at:

1. Valuation: What is Despegar.com 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 Despegar.com 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 Despegar.com'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.