Surgery Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGRY) is possibly approaching a major achievement in its business, so we would like to shine some light on the company. Surgery Partners, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates a network of surgical facilities and ancillary services in the United States. The US$3.0b market-cap company posted a loss in its most recent financial year of US$12m and a latest trailing-twelve-month loss of US$61m leading to an even wider gap between loss and breakeven. The most pressing concern for investors is Surgery Partners' 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.

Surgery Partners is bordering on breakeven, according to the 12 American Healthcare analysts. They anticipate the company to incur a final loss in 2024, before generating positive profits of US$111m in 2025. Therefore, the company is expected to breakeven just over a year from today. In order to meet this breakeven date, we calculated the rate at which the company must grow year-on-year. It turns out an average annual growth rate of 83% is expected, 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 Surgery Partners' upcoming projects, but, bear in mind that by and large a high growth rate is not out of the ordinary, particularly when a company is in a period of investment.

Before we wrap up, there's one issue worth mentioning. Surgery Partners currently has a relatively high level of debt. Typically, debt shouldn't exceed 40% of your equity, which in Surgery Partners' case is 70%. Note that a higher debt obligation increases the risk around investing in the loss-making company.

Next Steps:

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

1. Valuation: What is Surgery Partners 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 Surgery Partners 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 Surgery Partners'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.