
Typically, the lower the ratio, the better, but as we saw with our analysis of the above companies, each industry carries different debt loads. It is important to compare your company to others in the same industry. The higher the ratio, the more leveraged the company and riskier the investment. The debt covenant rules regarding the debt and the repayment of the debt plus interest; if the company fails to make its debt payments, it risks defaulting on its loan, leading to bankruptcy.

An ideal debt to asset ratio explains the part of https://www.bookstime.com/ the capital structure of the company that has been financed through the loan. Therefore, it shows the interest obligations of the business in bonds and loans. It helps in evaluating the financial risk of the business because investors can use this metric to assess the loan taken by the business and accordingly make investment decisions.
Imagine a company with $1 million in short-term payables, such as wages, accounts payable, and notes, and $500,000 in long-term debt. Compare this with a company with $500,000 in short-term payables and $1 million in long-term debt. Correctly formulating your company’s debt to asset ratio and unpacking the results to make financial decisions in the future could be the difference between prospering or not. When the ratio value is 1, it means a firm’s liabilities are equal to its assets. In other words, 100% of its resources are financed by debt, rather than by equity.


For Company A, 40% of its assets are financed through debt, suggesting a moderate level of leverage that may be acceptable in many industries. To illustrate the how to calculate debt to assets ratio calculation of the debt to asset ratio, let’s consider two hypothetical companies. Each example demonstrates different leverage levels to highlight the ratio’s impact on financial assessment. Regular monitoring of the debt to asset ratio, alongside other metrics, allows businesses to proactively address potential stability issues and adjust their financial strategies accordingly. Understanding these definitions is crucial for anyone involved in financial analysis, enabling better evaluation of a company’s financial health and stability.

While the ratio provides a good barometer of your business’s level of debt, it also comes with limitations, which we’ll discuss later in this article. The ratio is an important part of financial KPI tracking as it allows you to gauge your business’s degree of financial leverage, and in turn, how financially stable it is. The first group is the company’s top management, which is directly responsible for the expansion or contraction of a company.

Borrowing that seemed prudent at first can prove unprofitable later as a result. The necessary information to calculate the D/E ratio can be found on a company’s trial balance balance sheet. Subtracting the value of liabilities from total assets provides the figure for shareholder equity. The debt-to-equity (D/E) ratio is a calculation of a company’s total liabilities and shareholder equity that evaluates its reliance on debt.
Get in touch with our travel expert