Howard Marks put it nicely when he said that, rather than worrying about share price volatility, ‘The possibility of permanent loss is the risk I worry about… and every practical investor I know worries about.’ When we think about how risky a company is, we always like to look at its use of debt, since debt overload can lead to ruin. We can see that Landstar System, Inc. (NASDAQ:LSTR) does use debt in its business. But should shareholders be worried about its use of debt?
When Is Debt Dangerous?
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. 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. 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.
What Is Landstar System’s Debt?
You can click the graphic below for the historical numbers, but it shows that as of March 2021 Landstar System had US$74.8m of debt, an increase on US$36.0m, over one year. However, it does have US$260.8m in cash offsetting this, leading to net cash of US$186.0m.
How Strong Is Landstar System’s Balance Sheet?
According to the last reported balance sheet, Landstar System had liabilities of US$662.7m due within 12 months, and liabilities of US$148.9m due beyond 12 months. On the other hand, it had cash of US$260.8m and US$864.9m worth of receivables due within a year. So it actually has US$314.2m more liquid assets than total liabilities.
This short term liquidity is a sign that Landstar System could probably pay off its debt with ease, as its balance sheet is far from stretched. Simply put, the fact that Landstar System has more cash than debt is arguably a good indication that it can manage its debt safely.
And we also note warmly that Landstar System grew its EBIT by 12% last year, making its debt load easier to handle. There’s no doubt that we learn most about debt from the balance sheet. But ultimately the future profitability of the business will decide if Landstar System can strengthen its balance sheet over time.
Finally, a company can only pay off debt with cold hard cash, not accounting profits. While Landstar System has net cash on its balance sheet, it’s still worth taking a look at its ability to convert earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to free cash flow, to help us understand how quickly it is building (or eroding) that cash balance. Over the last three years, Landstar System recorded free cash flow worth a fulsome 80% of its EBIT, which is stronger than we’d usually expect. That puts it in a very strong position to pay down debt.
Summing up
While it is always sensible to investigate a company’s debt, in this case Landstar System has US$186.0m in net cash and a decent-looking balance sheet. And it impressed us with free cash flow of US$152m, being 80% of its EBIT. So is Landstar System’s debt a risk? It doesn’t seem so to us. The balance sheet is clearly the area to focus on when you are analysing debt. But ultimately, every company can contain risks that exist outside of the balance sheet.