Would PAR Technology (NYSE:PAR) Be Better Off With Less Debt?

The external fund manager backed by Berkshire Hathaway's Charlie Munger, Li Lu, makes no bones about it when he says '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. As with many other companies PAR Technology Corporation (NYSE:PAR) makes use of debt. But is this debt a concern to shareholders?

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. In the worst case scenario, a company can go bankrupt if it cannot pay its creditors. 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. 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.

Check out our latest analysis for PAR Technology

What Is PAR Technology's Net Debt?

As you can see below, at the end of September 2021, PAR Technology had US$303.0m of debt, up from US$105.5m a year ago. Click the image for more detail. On the flip side, it has US$200.3m in cash leading to net debt of about US$102.7m.

How Healthy Is PAR Technology's Balance Sheet?

We can see from the most recent balance sheet that PAR Technology had liabilities of US$60.5m falling due within a year, and liabilities of US$321.2m due beyond that. On the other hand, it had cash of US$200.3m and US$48.9m worth of receivables due within a year. So its liabilities outweigh the sum of its cash and (near-term) receivables by US$132.5m.

Since publicly traded PAR Technology shares are worth a total of US$1.57b, it seems unlikely that this level of liabilities would be a major threat. But there are sufficient liabilities that we would certainly recommend shareholders continue to monitor the balance sheet, going forward. When analysing debt levels, the balance sheet is the obvious place to start. But ultimately the future profitability of the business will decide if PAR Technology 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.

In the last year PAR Technology wasn't profitable at an EBIT level, but managed to grow its revenue by 25%, to US$260m. With any luck the company will be able to grow its way to profitability.

Caveat Emptor

Even though PAR Technology managed to grow its top line quite deftly, the cold hard truth is that it is losing money on the EBIT line. Indeed, it lost US$47m at the EBIT level. Considering that alongside the liabilities mentioned above does not give us much confidence that company should be using so much debt. Quite frankly we think the balance sheet is far from match-fit, although it could be improved with time. However, it doesn't help that it burned through US$58m of cash over the last year. So to be blunt we think it is risky. 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 PAR Technology that 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.

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.

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