Degree of Financial Leverage DFL: Formula and Calculator

At the same time, leverage will also multiply the potential downside risk in case the investment does not pan out. When one refers to a company, property, or investment as «highly leveraged,» it means that item has more debt than equity. Suppose the interest rate on your company’s debt is 8% and investors require an 18% return on their equity. With a capital base of $400,000, the company needs to earn a net income of $72,000 on $1 million in sales to achieve an 18% return on capital.

This ratio, which equals operating income divided by interest expenses, showcases the company’s ability to make interest payments. Generally, a ratio of 3.0 or higher is desirable, although this varies from industry to industry.

Equity Ratio

This situation is called unfavorable financial leverage or negative financial leverage. In general, a debt-to-equity ratio greater than one means a company has decided to take out more debt as opposed to finance through shareholders. Though this isn’t inherently bad, it means the company might have greater risk due to inflexible debt obligations. The company may also experience greater costs to borrow should it seek another loan again in the future.

The higher the earnings per share , the more profitable the company is. Financial leverage tells us how much the company depends on borrowing and how it generates revenue from its debt or borrowing. Calculating this is a simple total debt to shareholders equity ratio. Some risk factors of financial leverage financial leverage include interest expenses, potential bankruptcy if interests can not be paid, and loss in market value for publicly traded stock. If ROI is less than the cost of debt financing, it is not worthwhile to seek debt financing because losses get increased and the benefits to shareholders get decreased.

What are Leverage Ratios?

Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and behavioral finance. Adam received his master’s in economics from The New School for Social Research and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology. He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

The formula for the degree of financial leverage compares the % change in net income (or earnings per share, “EPS”) relative to the % change in operating income . Companies can merge both financial leverage and operating leverage, a combination business experts call combined leverage. Financial leverage calibrates total company financial risks while operating leverage measures business operating risk. This form of leverage involves a company or organization trying to boost operating income by hiking revenue. A company that produces sales figures with a robust gross margin and low costs comes out of that scenario with high operating leverage.