Yahoo Finance Is Amplifon (BIT:AMP) A Risky Investment?
The external fund manager backed by Berkshire Hathaway's Charlie Munger, Li Lu, makes no bones about it when he says 'The biggest investment risk is not the volatility of prices, but whether you will suffer a permanent loss of capital. When we think about how risky a company is, we always like to look at its use of debt, since debt overload can lead to ruin. As with many other companies Amplifon SpA (BIT:AMP) makes use of debt. But should shareholders be worried about its use of debt?
Why Does Debt Bring Risk?
Debt and other liabilities become risky for a business when it cannot easily fulfill those obligations, either with free cash flow or by raising capital at an attractive price. If things get really bad, the lenders can take control of the business. However, a more frequent (but still costly) occurrence is where a company must issue shares at bargain-basement prices, permanently diluting shareholders, just to shore up its balance sheet. Of course, the upside of debt is that it often represents cheap capital, especially when it replaces dilution in a company with the ability to reinvest at high rates of return. When we think about a company's use of debt, we first look at cash and debt together.
View our latest analysis for Amplifon
How Much Debt Does Amplifon Carry?
You can click the graphic below for the historical numbers, but it shows that as of June 2019 Amplifon had €962.6m of debt, an increase on €545.1m, over one year. However, it does have €128.9m in cash offsetting this, leading to net debt of about €833.8m.
How Healthy Is Amplifon's Balance Sheet?
Zooming in on the latest balance sheet data, we can see that Amplifon had liabilities of €678.1m due within 12 months and liabilities of €1.50b due beyond that. Offsetting this, it had €128.9m in cash and €270.9m in receivables that were due within 12 months. So its liabilities total €1.78b more than the combination of its cash and short-term receivables.
Amplifon has a market capitalization of €4.74b, so it could very likely raise cash to ameliorate its balance sheet, if the need arose. However, it is still worthwhile taking a close look at its ability to pay off debt.
In order to size up a company's debt relative to its earnings, we calculate its net debt divided by its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) and its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) divided by its interest expense (its interest cover). The advantage of this approach is that we take into account both the absolute quantum of debt (with net debt to EBITDA) and the actual interest expenses associated with that debt (with its interest cover ratio).
Amplifon has a debt to EBITDA ratio of 3.4, which signals significant debt, but is still pretty reasonable for most types of business. However, its interest coverage of 16.0 is very high, suggesting that the interest expense may well rise in the future, even if there hasn't yet been a major cost attached to that debt. If Amplifon can keep growing EBIT at last year's rate of 15% over the last year, then it will find its debt load easier to manage. When analysing debt levels, the balance sheet is the obvious place to start. But ultimately the future profitability of the business will decide if Amplifon can strengthen its balance sheet over time. So if you want to see what the professionals think, you might find this free report on analyst profit forecasts to be interesting.
But our final consideration is also important, because a company cannot pay debt with paper profits; it needs cold hard cash. So the logical step is to look at the proportion of that EBIT that is matched by actual free cash flow. During the last three years, Amplifon produced sturdy free cash flow equating to 72% of its EBIT, about what we'd expect. This free cash flow puts the company in a good position to pay down debt, when appropriate.
Our View
Amplifon's interest cover suggests it can handle its debt as easily as Cristiano Ronaldo could score a goal against an under 14's goalkeeper. But, on a more sombre note, we are a little concerned by its net debt to EBITDA. It's also worth noting that Amplifon is in the Healthcare industry, which is often considered to be quite defensive. Taking all this data into account, it seems to us that Amplifon takes a pretty sensible approach to debt. While that brings some risk, it can also enhance returns for shareholders. Above most other metrics, we think its important to track how fast earnings per share is growing, if at all. If you've also come to that realization, you're in luck, because today you can view this interactive graph of Amplifon's earnings per share history for free.
Of course, if you're the type of investor who prefers buying stocks without the burden of debt, then don't hesitate to discover our exclusive list of net cash growth stocks, today.
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If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
