Digital Value (BIT:DGV) Seems To Use Debt Quite Sensibly

Legendary fund manager Li Lu (who Charlie Munger backed) once said, 'The biggest investment risk is not the volatility of prices, but whether you will suffer a permanent loss of capital.' 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. We note that Digital Value S.p.A. (BIT:DGV) does have debt on its balance sheet. But the real question is whether this debt is making the company risky.

When Is Debt A Problem?

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 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. When we examine debt levels, we first consider both cash and debt levels, together.

View our latest analysis for Digital Value

How Much Debt Does Digital Value Carry?

As you can see below, at the end of December 2020, Digital Value had €37.3m of debt, up from €24.1m a year ago. Click the image for more detail. However, it does have €73.3m in cash offsetting this, leading to net cash of €35.9m.

How Healthy Is Digital Value's Balance Sheet?

According to the last reported balance sheet, Digital Value had liabilities of €243.5m due within 12 months, and liabilities of €42.6m due beyond 12 months. Offsetting this, it had €73.3m in cash and €113.0m in receivables that were due within 12 months. So its liabilities outweigh the sum of its cash and (near-term) receivables by €99.9m.

Of course, Digital Value has a market capitalization of €689.9m, so these liabilities are probably manageable. However, we do think it is worth keeping an eye on its balance sheet strength, as it may change over time. While it does have liabilities worth noting, Digital Value also has more cash than debt, so we're pretty confident it can manage its debt safely.

Also positive, Digital Value grew its EBIT by 26% in the last year, and that should make it easier to pay down debt, going forward. 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 Digital Value's ability to maintain a healthy balance sheet going forward. So if you're focused on the future you can check out this free report showing analyst profit forecasts.

Finally, a company can only pay off debt with cold hard cash, not accounting profits. While Digital Value 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, Digital Value reported free cash flow worth 2.8% of its EBIT, which is really quite low. For us, cash conversion that low sparks a little paranoia about is ability to extinguish debt.

Summing up

Although Digital Value's balance sheet isn't particularly strong, due to the total liabilities, it is clearly positive to see that it has net cash of €35.9m. And we liked the look of last year's 26% year-on-year EBIT growth. So we don't have any problem with Digital Value's use of debt. 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 Digital Value is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those doesn't sit too well with us...

If, after all that, you're more interested in a fast growing company with a rock-solid balance sheet, then check out our list of net cash growth stocks without delay.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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.
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