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Warren Buffett famously said, 'Volatility is far from synonymous with risk.' 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. Importantly, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation (NASDAQ:CTSH) does carry debt. But is this debt a concern to shareholders?
Why Does Debt Bring Risk?
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. Part and parcel of capitalism is the process of 'creative destruction' where failed businesses are mercilessly liquidated by their bankers. 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, debt can be an important tool in businesses, particularly capital heavy businesses. When we think about a company's use of debt, we first look at cash and debt together.
View our latest analysis for Cognizant Technology Solutions
How Much Debt Does Cognizant Technology Solutions Carry?
The image below, which you can click on for greater detail, shows that at September 2020 Cognizant Technology Solutions had debt of US$2.45b, up from US$747.0m in one year. But it also has US$4.58b in cash to offset that, meaning it has US$2.13b net cash.
How Healthy Is Cognizant Technology Solutions' Balance Sheet?
According to the last reported balance sheet, Cognizant Technology Solutions had liabilities of US$3.30b due within 12 months, and liabilities of US$4.35b due beyond 12 months. On the other hand, it had cash of US$4.58b and US$3.46b worth of receivables due within a year. So it actually has US$386.0m more liquid assets than total liabilities.
Having regard to Cognizant Technology Solutions' size, it seems that its liquid assets are well balanced with its total liabilities. So while it's hard to imagine that the US$43.8b company is struggling for cash, we still think it's worth monitoring its balance sheet. Succinctly put, Cognizant Technology Solutions boasts net cash, so it's fair to say it does not have a heavy debt load!
On the other hand, Cognizant Technology Solutions saw its EBIT drop by 5.3% in the last twelve months. That sort of decline, if sustained, will obviously make debt harder to handle. When analysing debt levels, the balance sheet is the obvious place to start. But ultimately the future profitability of the business will decide if Cognizant Technology Solutions 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.