Is Charles River Laboratories International (NYSE:CRL) A Risky Investment?
David Iben put it well when he said, 'Volatility is not a risk we care about. What we care about is avoiding the 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. We note that Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL) does have debt on its balance sheet. But the more important question is: how much risk is that debt creating?
When Is Debt A Problem?
Generally speaking, debt only becomes a real problem when a company can't easily pay it off, either by raising capital or with its own cash flow. Ultimately, if the company can't fulfill its legal obligations to repay debt, shareholders could walk away with nothing. 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, 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. The first thing to do when considering how much debt a business uses is to look at its cash and debt together.
See our latest analysis for Charles River Laboratories International
What Is Charles River Laboratories International's Net Debt?
The image below, which you can click on for greater detail, shows that at June 2019 Charles River Laboratories International had debt of US$2.04b, up from US$1.83b in one year. However, because it has a cash reserve of US$201.5m, its net debt is less, at about US$1.84b.
How Strong Is Charles River Laboratories International's Balance Sheet?
The latest balance sheet data shows that Charles River Laboratories International had liabilities of US$635.6m due within a year, and liabilities of US$2.51b falling due after that. Offsetting this, it had US$201.5m in cash and US$545.1m in receivables that were due within 12 months. So its liabilities total US$2.40b more than the combination of its cash and short-term receivables.
This deficit isn't so bad because Charles River Laboratories International is worth US$6.47b, 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.
Charles River Laboratories International's debt is 3.4 times its EBITDA, and its EBIT cover its interest expense 5.7 times over. Taken together this implies that, while we wouldn't want to see debt levels rise, we think it can handle its current leverage. One way Charles River Laboratories International could vanquish its debt would be if it stops borrowing more but conitinues to grow EBIT at around 16%, as it did over the last year. There's no doubt that we learn most about debt from the balance sheet. But it is future earnings, more than anything, that will determine Charles River Laboratories International's ability to maintain a healthy balance sheet going forward. 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 we always check how much of that EBIT is translated into free cash flow. During the last three years, Charles River Laboratories International generated free cash flow amounting to a very robust 81% of its EBIT, more than we'd expect. That positions it well to pay down debt if desirable to do so.
Our View
Charles River Laboratories International's conversion of EBIT to free cash flow suggests it can handle its debt as easily as Cristiano Ronaldo could score a goal against an under 14's goalkeeper. But truth be told we feel its net debt to EBITDA does undermine this impression a bit. Looking at all the aforementioned factors together, it strikes us that Charles River Laboratories International can handle its debt fairly comfortably. Of course, while this leverage can enhance returns on equity, it does bring more risk, so it's worth keeping an eye on this one. Of course, we wouldn't say no to the extra confidence that we'd gain if we knew that Charles River Laboratories International insiders have been buying shares: if you're on the same wavelength, you can find out if insiders are buying by clicking this link.
If you're interested in investing in businesses that can grow profits without the burden of debt, then check out this free list of growing businesses that have net cash on the balance sheet.
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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.
