Yahoo Finance We Think Corning (NYSE:GLW) Is Taking Some Risk With Its Debt
Warren Buffett famously said, 'Volatility is far from synonymous with risk.' So it seems the smart money knows that debt - which is usually involved in bankruptcies - is a very important factor, when you assess how risky a company is. We note that Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) does have debt on its balance sheet. But is this debt a concern to shareholders?
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 usual (but still expensive) situation is where a company must dilute shareholders at a cheap share price simply to get debt under control. Of course, debt can be an important tool in businesses, particularly capital heavy businesses. When we examine debt levels, we first consider both cash and debt levels, together.
See our latest analysis for Corning
What Is Corning's Net Debt?
As you can see below, at the end of September 2019, Corning had US$6.26b of debt, up from US$5.32b a year ago. Click the image for more detail. On the flip side, it has US$971.0m in cash leading to net debt of about US$5.29b.
A Look At Corning's Liabilities
According to the last reported balance sheet, Corning had liabilities of US$3.60b due within 12 months, and liabilities of US$10.6b due beyond 12 months. On the other hand, it had cash of US$971.0m and US$2.02b worth of receivables due within a year. So its liabilities total US$11.2b more than the combination of its cash and short-term receivables.
This deficit isn't so bad because Corning is worth a massive US$23.4b, and thus could probably raise enough capital to shore up its balance sheet, if the need arose. But we definitely want to keep our eyes open to indications that its debt is bringing too much risk.
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). Thus we consider debt relative to earnings both with and without depreciation and amortization expenses.
Corning's net debt of 1.8 times EBITDA suggests graceful use of debt. And the fact that its trailing twelve months of EBIT was 7.8 times its interest expenses harmonizes with that theme. The bad news is that Corning saw its EBIT decline by 11% over the last year. If earnings continue to decline at that rate then handling the debt will be more difficult than taking three children under 5 to a fancy pants restaurant. When analysing debt levels, the balance sheet is the obvious place to start. But ultimately the future profitability of the business will decide if Corning 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.
Finally, a company can only pay off debt with cold hard cash, not accounting profits. So we clearly need to look at whether that EBIT is leading to corresponding free cash flow. In the last three years, Corning's free cash flow amounted to 29% of its EBIT, less than we'd expect. That's not great, when it comes to paying down debt.
Our View
Corning's EBIT growth rate was a real negative on this analysis, although the other factors we considered cast it in a significantly better light. For example, its interest cover is relatively strong. Taking the abovementioned factors together we do think Corning's debt poses some risks to the business. So while that leverage does boost returns on equity, we wouldn't really want to see it increase from here. Given our hesitation about the stock, it would be good to know if Corning insiders have sold any shares recently. You click here to find out if insiders have sold recently.
At the end of the day, it's often better to focus on companies that are free from net debt. You can access our special list of such companies (all with a track record of profit growth). It's free.
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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.
