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.’ 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. As with many other companies Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR) makes use of debt. But the real question is whether this debt is making the company risky.
When Is Debt A Problem?
Debt assists a business until the business has trouble paying it off, either with new capital or with free cash flow. Ultimately, if the company can’t fulfill its legal obligations to repay debt, shareholders could walk away with nothing. 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 thing to do when considering how much debt a business uses is to look at its cash and debt together.
What Is Entergy’s Debt?
The image below, which you can click on for greater detail, shows that at June 2021 Entergy had debt of US$25.4b, up from US$21.4b in one year. On the flip side, it has US$686.9m in cash leading to net debt of about US$24.7b.
How Strong Is Entergy’s Balance Sheet?
According to the last reported balance sheet, Entergy had liabilities of US$3.80b due within 12 months, and liabilities of US$41.0b due beyond 12 months. Offsetting these obligations, it had cash of US$686.9m as well as receivables valued at US$1.44b due within 12 months. So it has liabilities totalling US$42.7b more than its cash and near-term receivables, combined.
This deficit casts a shadow over the US$20.3b company, like a colossus towering over mere mortals. So we’d watch its balance sheet closely, without a doubt. After all, Entergy would likely require a major re-capitalisation if it had to pay its creditors today.
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.
Entergy has a rather high debt to EBITDA ratio of 6.4 which suggests a meaningful debt load. But the good news is that it boasts fairly comforting interest cover of 6.0 times, suggesting it can responsibly service its obligations. Entergy grew its EBIT by 3.0% in the last year. That’s far from incredible but it is a good thing, when it comes to paying off debt. 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 Entergy’s ability to maintain a healthy balance sheet going forward.
But our final consideration is also important, because a company cannot pay debt with paper profits; it needs cold hard cash. So we always check how much of that EBIT is translated into free cash flow. During the last three years, Entergy burned a lot of cash. While investors are no doubt expecting a reversal of that situation in due course, it clearly does mean its use of debt is more risky.
Our View
To be frank both Entergy’s conversion of EBIT to free cash flow and its track record of staying on top of its total liabilities make us rather uncomfortable with its debt levels. Having said that, its ability to cover its interest expense with its EBIT isn’t such a worry. We should also note that Electric Utilities industry companies like Entergy commonly do use debt without problems. After considering the datapoints discussed, we think Entergy has too much debt. That sort of riskiness is ok for some, but it certainly doesn’t float our boat. When analysing debt levels, the balance sheet is the obvious place to start.