Does Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) Have A Healthy Balance Sheet?

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.' 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. We can see that Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS) does use debt in its business. But should shareholders be worried about its use of debt?

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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. 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. The first step when considering a company's debt levels is to consider its cash and debt together.

What Is Olympic Steel's Net Debt?

The image below, which you can click on for greater detail, shows that at December 2024 Olympic Steel had debt of US$272.5m, up from US$190.2m in one year. On the flip side, it has US$12.2m in cash leading to net debt of about US$260.3m.

How Healthy Is Olympic Steel's Balance Sheet?

We can see from the most recent balance sheet that Olympic Steel had liabilities of US$132.6m falling due within a year, and liabilities of US$337.9m due beyond that. On the other hand, it had cash of US$12.2m and US$166.1m worth of receivables due within a year. So its liabilities outweigh the sum of its cash and (near-term) receivables by US$292.3m.

This deficit is considerable relative to its market capitalization of US$353.4m, so it does suggest shareholders should keep an eye on Olympic Steel's use of debt. Should its lenders demand that it shore up the balance sheet, shareholders would likely face severe dilution.

See our latest analysis for Olympic Steel

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). Thus we consider debt relative to earnings both with and without depreciation and amortization expenses.

Olympic Steel has a debt to EBITDA ratio of 3.3 and its EBIT covered its interest expense 2.9 times. This suggests that while the debt levels are significant, we'd stop short of calling them problematic. Even worse, Olympic Steel saw its EBIT tank 42% over the last 12 months. If earnings keep going like that over the long term, it has a snowball's chance in hell of paying off that debt. When analysing debt levels, the balance sheet is the obvious place to start. But ultimately the future profitability of the business will decide if Olympic Steel can strengthen its balance sheet over time. 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. Over the last three years, Olympic Steel actually produced more free cash flow than EBIT. There's nothing better than incoming cash when it comes to staying in your lenders' good graces.

Our View

We'd go so far as to say Olympic Steel's EBIT growth rate was disappointing. But at least it's pretty decent at converting EBIT to free cash flow; that's encouraging. Looking at the balance sheet and taking into account all these factors, we do believe that debt is making Olympic Steel stock a bit risky. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but we'd generally feel more comfortable with less leverage. When analysing debt levels, the balance sheet is the obvious place to start. However, not all investment risk resides within the balance sheet - far from it. For instance, we've identified 3 warning signs for Olympic Steel (1 is concerning) you should be aware of.

Of course, if you're the type of investor who prefers buying stocks without the burden of debt, then don't hesitate to discover our exclusive list of net cash growth stocks, today.

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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.