These 4 Measures Indicate That Roper Technologies (NYSE:ROP) Is Using Debt Reasonably Well

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.' 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 Roper Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:ROP) makes use of debt. 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. Part and parcel of capitalism is the process of 'creative destruction' where failed businesses are mercilessly liquidated by their bankers. However, a more common (but still painful) scenario is that it has to raise new equity capital at a low price, thus permanently diluting shareholders. 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. The first thing to do when considering how much debt a business uses is to look at its cash and debt together.

View our latest analysis for Roper Technologies

What Is Roper Technologies's Net Debt?

You can click the graphic below for the historical numbers, but it shows that as of September 2020 Roper Technologies had US$9.43b of debt, an increase on US$6.20b, over one year. However, because it has a cash reserve of US$302.1m, its net debt is less, at about US$9.13b.

How Strong Is Roper Technologies's Balance Sheet?

We can see from the most recent balance sheet that Roper Technologies had liabilities of US$2.34b falling due within a year, and liabilities of US$11.2b due beyond that. Offsetting these obligations, it had cash of US$302.1m as well as receivables valued at US$1.07b due within 12 months. So its liabilities outweigh the sum of its cash and (near-term) receivables by US$12.1b.

This deficit isn't so bad because Roper Technologies is worth a massive US$38.9b, and thus could probably raise enough capital to shore up its balance sheet, if the need arose. However, it is still worthwhile taking a close look at its ability to pay off debt.

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 net debt to EBITDA of 4.7 Roper Technologies has a fairly noticeable amount of debt. On the plus side, its EBIT was 7.1 times its interest expense, and its net debt to EBITDA, was quite high, at 4.7. Notably Roper Technologies's EBIT was pretty flat over the last year. We would prefer to see some earnings growth, because that always helps diminish 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 Roper Technologies'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. During the last three years, Roper Technologies generated free cash flow amounting to a very robust 94% of its EBIT, more than we'd expect. That puts it in a very strong position to pay down debt.

Our View

When it comes to the balance sheet, the standout positive for Roper Technologies was the fact that it seems able to convert EBIT to free cash flow confidently. But the other factors we noted above weren't so encouraging. To be specific, it seems about as good at managing its debt, based on its EBITDA, as wet socks are at keeping your feet warm. Considering this range of data points, we think Roper Technologies is in a good position to manage its debt levels. But a word of caution: we think debt levels are high enough to justify ongoing monitoring. There's no doubt that we learn most about debt from the balance sheet. However, not all investment risk resides within the balance sheet - far from it. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Roper Technologies (1 is a bit unpleasant) you should be aware of.

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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