Is Amedisys (NASDAQ:AMED) Using Too Much Debt?

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. As with many other companies Amedisys, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMED) makes use of debt. But is this debt a concern to shareholders?

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. While that is not too common, we often do see indebted companies permanently diluting shareholders because lenders force them to raise capital at a distressed price. 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.

Check out our latest analysis for Amedisys

What Is Amedisys's Debt?

As you can see below, Amedisys had US$212.4m of debt at December 2020, down from US$238.8m a year prior. However, it also had US$81.8m in cash, and so its net debt is US$130.6m.

A Look At Amedisys' Liabilities

According to the last reported balance sheet, Amedisys had liabilities of US$456.3m due within 12 months, and liabilities of US$300.1m due beyond 12 months. Offsetting these obligations, it had cash of US$81.8m as well as receivables valued at US$257.6m due within 12 months. So it has liabilities totalling US$417.0m more than its cash and near-term receivables, combined.

Given Amedisys has a market capitalization of US$8.55b, it's hard to believe these liabilities pose much threat. But there are sufficient liabilities that we would certainly recommend shareholders continue to monitor the balance sheet, going forward.

In order to size up a company's debt relative to its earnings, we calculate its net debt divided by its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) and its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) divided by its interest expense (its interest cover). The advantage of this approach is that we take into account both the absolute quantum of debt (with net debt to EBITDA) and the actual interest expenses associated with that debt (with its interest cover ratio).

Amedisys has a low net debt to EBITDA ratio of only 0.54. And its EBIT covers its interest expense a whopping 19.9 times over. So we're pretty relaxed about its super-conservative use of debt. Also good is that Amedisys grew its EBIT at 20% over the last year, further increasing its ability to manage 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 Amedisys'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, a company can only pay off debt with cold hard cash, not accounting profits. So we clearly need to look at whether that EBIT is leading to corresponding free cash flow. Over the last three years, Amedisys actually produced more free cash flow than EBIT. That sort of strong cash conversion gets us as excited as the crowd when the beat drops at a Daft Punk concert.

Our View

The good news is that Amedisys's demonstrated ability to cover its interest expense with its EBIT delights us like a fluffy puppy does a toddler. And that's just the beginning of the good news since its conversion of EBIT to free cash flow is also very heartening. We would also note that Healthcare industry companies like Amedisys commonly do use debt without problems. It looks Amedisys has no trouble standing on its own two feet, and it has no reason to fear its lenders. To our minds it has a healthy happy balance sheet. Over time, share prices tend to follow earnings per share, so if you're interested in Amedisys, you may well want to click here to check an interactive graph of its earnings per share history.

If you're interested in investing in businesses that can grow profits without the burden of debt, then check out this free list of growing businesses that have net cash on the balance sheet.

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