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. Importantly, Allied Motion Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:AMOT) does carry debt. But the more important question is: how much risk is that debt creating?
When Is Debt Dangerous?
Debt assists a business until the business has trouble paying it off, either with new capital or with free cash flow. In the worst case scenario, a company can go bankrupt if it cannot pay its creditors. 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, plenty of companies use debt to fund growth, without any negative consequences. The first step when considering a company's debt levels is to consider its cash and debt together.
Check out our latest analysis for Allied Motion Technologies
What Is Allied Motion Technologies's Debt?
As you can see below, at the end of June 2019, Allied Motion Technologies had US$123.3m of debt, up from US$64.9m a year ago. Click the image for more detail. However, because it has a cash reserve of US$10.5m, its net debt is less, at about US$112.8m.
A Look At Allied Motion Technologies's Liabilities
Zooming in on the latest balance sheet data, we can see that Allied Motion Technologies had liabilities of US$45.2m due within 12 months and liabilities of US$154.2m due beyond that. On the other hand, it had cash of US$10.5m and US$51.8m worth of receivables due within a year. So its liabilities outweigh the sum of its cash and (near-term) receivables by US$137.1m.
This deficit isn't so bad because Allied Motion Technologies is worth US$326.0m, and thus could probably raise enough capital to shore up its balance sheet, if the need arose. However, it is still worthwhile taking a close look at its ability to pay off debt.
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). This way, we consider both the absolute quantum of the debt, as well as the interest rates paid on it.
Allied Motion Technologies's debt is 2.9 times its EBITDA, and its EBIT cover its interest expense 6.3 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. If Allied Motion Technologies can keep growing EBIT at last year's rate of 11% 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 ultimately the future profitability of the business will decide if Allied Motion Technologies 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.