David Iben put it well when he said, 'Volatility is not a risk we care about. What we care about is avoiding the permanent loss of capital.' So it might be obvious that you need to consider debt, when you think about how risky any given stock is, because too much debt can sink a company. We can see that Ternium S.A. (NYSE:TX) does use debt in its business. But should shareholders be worried about its use of debt?

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. Ultimately, if the company can't fulfill its legal obligations to repay debt, shareholders could walk away with nothing. However, a more common (but still painful) scenario is that it has to raise new equity capital at a low price, thus permanently diluting shareholders. Of course, plenty of companies use debt to fund growth, without any negative consequences. The first thing to do when considering how much debt a business uses is to look at its cash and debt together.

How Much Debt Does Ternium Carry?

As you can see below, at the end of March 2024, Ternium had US$2.10b of debt, up from US$880.3m a year ago. Click the image for more detail. But it also has US$4.06b in cash to offset that, meaning it has US$1.97b net cash.

How Healthy Is Ternium's Balance Sheet?

We can see from the most recent balance sheet that Ternium had liabilities of US$3.78b falling due within a year, and liabilities of US$3.34b due beyond that. Offsetting these obligations, it had cash of US$4.06b as well as receivables valued at US$3.40b due within 12 months. So it actually has US$352.0m more liquid assets than total liabilities.

This surplus suggests that Ternium has a conservative balance sheet, and could probably eliminate its debt without much difficulty. Succinctly put, Ternium boasts net cash, so it's fair to say it does not have a heavy debt load!

Better yet, Ternium grew its EBIT by 101% last year, which is an impressive improvement. If maintained that growth will make the debt even more manageable in the years ahead. 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 Ternium'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, while the tax-man may adore accounting profits, lenders only accept cold hard cash. Ternium may have net cash on the balance sheet, but it is still interesting to look at how well the business converts its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to free cash flow, because that will influence both its need for, and its capacity to manage debt. Looking at the most recent three years, Ternium recorded free cash flow of 44% of its EBIT, which is weaker than we'd expect. That's not great, when it comes to paying down debt.

Summing Up

While it is always sensible to investigate a company's debt, in this case Ternium has US$1.97b in net cash and a decent-looking balance sheet. And it impressed us with its EBIT growth of 101% over the last year. So we don't think Ternium's use of debt is risky. 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. Be aware that Ternium is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those can't be ignored...

If, after all that, you're more interested in a fast growing company with a rock-solid balance sheet, then check out our list of net cash growth stocks without delay.

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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.