Coor Service Management Holding (STO:COOR) Has A Pretty Healthy Balance Sheet
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. So it might be obvious that you need to consider debt, when you think about how risky any given stock is, because too much debt can sink a company. As with many other companies Coor Service Management Holding AB (STO:COOR) makes use of debt. But is this debt a concern to shareholders?
What Risk Does Debt Bring?
Debt assists a business until the business has trouble paying it off, either with new capital or with free cash flow. Ultimately, if the company can't fulfill its legal obligations to repay debt, shareholders could walk away with nothing. 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. By replacing dilution, though, debt can be an extremely good tool for businesses that need capital to invest in growth at high rates of return. When we examine debt levels, we first consider both cash and debt levels, together.
Check out our latest analysis for Coor Service Management Holding
What Is Coor Service Management Holding's Debt?
As you can see below, at the end of June 2019, Coor Service Management Holding had kr1.96b of debt, up from kr1.72b a year ago. Click the image for more detail. However, it does have kr391.0m in cash offsetting this, leading to net debt of about kr1.56b.
How Healthy Is Coor Service Management Holding's Balance Sheet?
Zooming in on the latest balance sheet data, we can see that Coor Service Management Holding had liabilities of kr2.46b due within 12 months and liabilities of kr2.25b due beyond that. On the other hand, it had cash of kr391.0m and kr1.28b worth of receivables due within a year. So it has liabilities totalling kr3.04b more than its cash and near-term receivables, combined.
While this might seem like a lot, it is not so bad since Coor Service Management Holding has a market capitalization of kr7.75b, and so it could probably strengthen its balance sheet by raising capital if it needed to. But it's clear that we should definitely closely examine whether it can manage its debt without dilution.
We measure a company's debt load relative to its earnings power by looking at its net debt divided by its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) and by calculating how easily its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) cover its interest expense (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).
Coor Service Management Holding's debt is 2.6 times its EBITDA, and its EBIT cover its interest expense 6.3 times over. This suggests that while the debt levels are significant, we'd stop short of calling them problematic. One way Coor Service Management Holding could vanquish its debt would be if it stops borrowing more but continues to grow EBIT at around 11%, as it did over the last year. The balance sheet is clearly the area to focus on when you are analysing debt. But ultimately the future profitability of the business will decide if Coor Service Management Holding can strengthen its balance sheet over time. So if you're focused on the future you can check out this free report showing analyst profit forecasts.
Finally, a company can only pay off debt with cold hard cash, not accounting profits. So it's worth checking how much of that EBIT is backed by free cash flow. Over the last three years, Coor Service Management Holding actually produced more free cash flow than EBIT. That sort of strong cash conversion gets us as excited as the crowd when the beat drops at a Daft Punk concert.
Our View
Happily, Coor Service Management Holding's impressive conversion of EBIT to free cash flow implies it has the upper hand on its debt. But truth be told we feel its net debt to EBITDA does undermine this impression a bit. All these things considered, it appears that Coor Service Management Holding can comfortably handle its current debt levels. On the plus side, this leverage can boost shareholder returns, but the potential downside is more risk of loss, so it's worth monitoring the balance sheet. We'd be motivated to research the stock further if we found out that Coor Service Management Holding insiders have bought shares recently. If you would too, then you're in luck, since today we're sharing our list of reported insider transactions for free.
If, after all that, you're more interested in a fast growing company with a rock-solid balance sheet, then check out our list of net cash growth stocks without delay.
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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.
