Is inTEST Corporation (NYSEMKT:INTT) A Financially Sound Company?
inTEST Corporation (NYSEMKT:INTT), which has zero-debt on its balance sheet, can maximize capital returns by increasing debt due to its lower cost of capital. However, the trade-off is INTT will have to follow strict debt obligations which will reduce its financial flexibility. While zero-debt makes the due diligence for potential investors less nerve-racking, it poses a new question: how should they assess the financial strength of such companies? I will go over a basic overview of the stock’s financial health, which I believe provides a ballpark estimate of their financial health status.
See our latest analysis for inTEST
Is financial flexibility worth the lower cost of capital?
Debt capital generally has lower cost of capital compared to equity funding. Though, the trade-offs are that lenders require stricter capital management requirements, in addition to having a higher claim on company assets relative to shareholders. INTT’s absence of debt on its balance sheet may be due to lack of access to cheaper capital, or it may simply believe low cost is not worth sacrificing financial flexibility. However, choosing flexibility over capital returns is logical only if it’s a high-growth company. A double-digit revenue growth of 38% is considered relatively high for a small-cap company like INTT. Therefore, the company’s decision to choose financial flexibility is justified as it may need headroom to borrow in the future to sustain high growth.
Does INTT’s liquid assets cover its short-term commitments?
Since inTEST doesn’t have any debt on its balance sheet, it doesn’t have any solvency issues, which is a term used to describe the company’s ability to meet its long-term obligations. However, another measure of financial health is its short-term obligations, which is known as liquidity. These include payments to suppliers, employees and other stakeholders. At the current liabilities level of US$20m liabilities, it seems that the business has been able to meet these commitments with a current assets level of US$33m, leading to a 1.71x current account ratio. For Semiconductor companies, this ratio is within a sensible range as there’s enough of a cash buffer without holding too much capital in low return investments.
Next Steps:
INTT is a fast-growing firm, which supports having have zero-debt and financial freedom to continue to ramp up growth. This may mean this is an optimal capital structure for the business, given that it is also meeting its short-term commitment. Moving forward, INTT’s financial situation may change. Keep in mind I haven’t considered other factors such as how INTT has been performing in the past. I suggest you continue to research inTEST to get a more holistic view of the stock by looking at:
Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for INTT’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for INTT’s outlook.
Valuation: What is INTT worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether INTT is currently mispriced by the market.
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.
To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
