Yahoo Finance PerkinElmer (NYSE:PKI) Has A Pretty Healthy Balance Sheet
Warren Buffett famously said, 'Volatility is far from synonymous with risk.' It's only natural to consider a company's balance sheet when you examine how risky it is, since debt is often involved when a business collapses. As with many other companies PerkinElmer, Inc. (NYSE:PKI) makes use of debt. But is this debt a concern to shareholders?
What Risk Does Debt Bring?
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. In the worst case scenario, a company can go bankrupt if it cannot pay its creditors. 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. The first step when considering a company's debt levels is to consider its cash and debt together.
View our latest analysis for PerkinElmer
What Is PerkinElmer's Net Debt?
You can click the graphic below for the historical numbers, but it shows that as of June 2019 PerkinElmer had US$2.11b of debt, an increase on US$2.00b, over one year. However, it also had US$150.0m in cash, and so its net debt is US$1.96b.
How Strong Is PerkinElmer's Balance Sheet?
The latest balance sheet data shows that PerkinElmer had liabilities of US$706.8m due within a year, and liabilities of US$2.99b falling due after that. Offsetting this, it had US$150.0m in cash and US$654.5m in receivables that were due within 12 months. So it has liabilities totalling US$2.89b more than its cash and near-term receivables, combined.
While this might seem like a lot, it is not so bad since PerkinElmer has a market capitalization of US$9.12b, and so it could probably strengthen its balance sheet by raising capital if it needed to. However, it is still worthwhile taking a close look at its ability to pay off debt.
We use two main ratios to inform us about debt levels relative to earnings. The first is net debt divided by earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), while the second is how many times its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) covers its interest expense (or its interest cover, for short). This way, we consider both the absolute quantum of the debt, as well as the interest rates paid on it.
PerkinElmer has a debt to EBITDA ratio of 3.4 and its EBIT covered its interest expense 5.9 times. Taken together this implies that, while we wouldn't want to see debt levels rise, we think it can handle its current leverage. If PerkinElmer can keep growing EBIT at last year's rate of 10% over the last year, then it will find its debt load easier to manage. The balance sheet is clearly the area to focus on when you are analysing debt. But it is future earnings, more than anything, that will determine PerkinElmer'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.
Finally, a business needs free cash flow to pay off debt; accounting profits just don't cut it. So we clearly need to look at whether that EBIT is leading to corresponding free cash flow. During the last three years, PerkinElmer produced sturdy free cash flow equating to 65% 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
PerkinElmer's conversion of EBIT to free cash flow was a real positive on this analysis, as was its EBIT growth rate. On the other hand, its net debt to EBITDA makes us a little less comfortable about its debt. When we consider all the elements mentioned above, it seems to us that PerkinElmer is managing its debt quite well. Having said that, the load is sufficiently heavy that we would recommend any shareholders keep a close eye on it. Of course, we wouldn't say no to the extra confidence that we'd gain if we knew that PerkinElmer insiders have been buying shares: if you're on the same wavelength, you can find out if insiders are buying by clicking this link.
When all is said and done, sometimes its easier to focus on companies that don't even need debt. Readers can access a list of growth stocks with zero net debt 100% free, right now.
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