These 4 Measures Indicate That Grainger (LON:GRI) Is Using Debt Reasonably Well

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 Grainger plc (LON:GRI) makes use of debt. But should shareholders be worried about its use of debt?

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. 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, debt can be an important tool in businesses, particularly capital heavy businesses. When we examine debt levels, we first consider both cash and debt levels, together.

View our latest analysis for Grainger

What Is Grainger's Net Debt?

The image below, which you can click on for greater detail, shows that Grainger had debt of UK£1.35b at the end of September 2021, a reduction from UK£1.41b over a year. However, because it has a cash reserve of UK£317.6m, its net debt is less, at about UK£1.03b.

How Strong Is Grainger's Balance Sheet?

We can see from the most recent balance sheet that Grainger had liabilities of UK£114.5m falling due within a year, and liabilities of UK£1.42b due beyond that. Offsetting these obligations, it had cash of UK£317.6m as well as receivables valued at UK£51.8m due within 12 months. So its liabilities total UK£1.16b more than the combination of its cash and short-term receivables.

Grainger has a market capitalization of UK£2.15b, so it could very likely raise cash to ameliorate its balance sheet, if the need arose. But we definitely want to keep our eyes open to indications that its debt is bringing too much risk.

We measure a company's debt load relative to its earnings power by looking at its net debt divided by its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) and by calculating how easily its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) cover its interest expense (interest cover). This way, we consider both the absolute quantum of the debt, as well as the interest rates paid on it.

With a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 9.0, it's fair to say Grainger does have a significant amount of debt. However, its interest coverage of 4.3 is reasonably strong, which is a good sign. Notably, Grainger's EBIT was pretty flat over the last year, which isn't ideal given the debt load. There's no doubt that we learn most about debt from the balance sheet. But it is future earnings, more than anything, that will determine Grainger'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, while the tax-man may adore accounting profits, lenders only accept cold hard cash. So we clearly need to look at whether that EBIT is leading to corresponding free cash flow. Happily for any shareholders, Grainger actually produced more free cash flow than EBIT over the last three years. That sort of strong cash conversion gets us as excited as the crowd when the beat drops at a Daft Punk concert.

Our View

Based on what we've seen Grainger is not finding it easy, given its net debt to EBITDA, but the other factors we considered give us cause to be optimistic. There's no doubt that its ability to to convert EBIT to free cash flow is pretty flash. Looking at all this data makes us feel a little cautious about Grainger's debt levels. While debt does have its upside in higher potential returns, we think shareholders should definitely consider how debt levels might make the stock more risky. When analysing debt levels, the balance sheet is the obvious place to start. But ultimately, every company can contain risks that exist outside of the balance sheet. Be aware that Grainger is showing 4 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is a bit concerning...

At the end of the day, it's often better to focus on companies that are free from net debt. You can access our special list of such companies (all with a track record of profit growth). It's free.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.