Is Noble (NYSE:NE) Using Too Much Debt?
Is Noble (NYSE:NE) Using Too Much Debt?
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.' 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. As with many other companies Noble Corporation plc (NYSE:NE) makes use of debt. But is this debt a concern to shareholders?
傳奇基金經理、查理·芒格背書的李璐曾說過,“最大的投資風險不是價格的波動,而是你是否會遭受到資本的永久損失。”由此可以看出,在考慮任何給定股票的風險時,你需要考慮債務,因爲過多的債務可以使公司破產。與許多其他公司一樣,Noble Corporation plc (NYSE:NE)也利用債務。但是,這筆債務是否讓股東感到擔憂呢?
Why Does Debt Bring Risk?
爲什麼債務會帶來風險?
Debt is a tool to help businesses grow, but if a business is incapable of paying off its lenders, then it exists at their mercy. If things get really bad, the lenders can take control of the business. However, a more usual (but still expensive) situation is where a company must dilute shareholders at a cheap share price simply to get debt under control. 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. When we examine debt levels, we first consider both cash and debt levels, together.
債務是幫助企業增長的工具,但如果企業無法償還其借款人,那麼它就處於它們的掌控之下。如果情況變得非常糟糕,放貸人可以控制業務。然而,更常見(但仍然昂貴)的情況是公司必須以低廉的股價稀釋股東,僅僅是爲了控制債務。當然,債務的優勢在於它通常代表便宜的資本,特別是當它代替具有高回報率再投資能力的公司稀釋股權時。當我們考慮債務水平時,我們首先考慮現金和債務水平。
What Is Noble's Net Debt?
什麼是Noble的淨債務?
As you can see below, at the end of March 2024, Noble had US$586.6m of debt, up from US$520.7m a year ago. Click the image for more detail. However, it does have US$212.5m in cash offsetting this, leading to net debt of about US$374.2m.
如下圖所示,在2024年3月底,Noble的債務爲58660萬美元,比一年前的52070萬美元增加了6500萬美元。點擊圖片查看更多細節。然而,它的現金爲21250萬美元,抵消了這一點,導致淨債務約爲37420萬美元。
![big](https://usnewsfile.moomoo.com/public/MM-PersistNewsContentImage/7781/20240716/0-e849fcac2014b6b0d37edef793b413ad-0-aa7a3849f10346c1a6f330f9c16a89a1.png/big)
A Look At Noble's Liabilities
看一下Noble的負債情況
Zooming in on the latest balance sheet data, we can see that Noble had liabilities of US$603.4m due within 12 months and liabilities of US$919.8m due beyond that. On the other hand, it had cash of US$212.5m and US$668.1m worth of receivables due within a year. So its liabilities total US$642.6m more than the combination of its cash and short-term receivables.
進一步觀察最新的資產負債表數據,我們可以看到Noble有60340萬美元的負債到期在12個月內,其餘91980萬美元的負債將在12個月後到期。另一方面,它的現金爲21250萬美元,有66810萬美元的應收賬款將在一年內到期。因此,它的負債總額比其現金和短期應收款的組合多64260萬美元。
Since publicly traded Noble shares are worth a total of US$6.54b, 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.
由於公開交易的Noble的股份總價值達到65.4億美元,因此這種程度的負債似乎不會構成重大威脅。但是,負債足夠大,我們肯定會建議股東繼續監控資產負債表的變化。
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). The advantage of this approach is that we take into account both the absolute quantum of debt (with net debt to EBITDA) and the actual interest expenses associated with that debt (with its interest cover ratio).
爲了衡量公司相對於其收益的債務情況,我們計算其淨負債除以利息、稅項、折舊和攤銷前收益(EBITDA)和其利息支出除以利息前收益(EBIT)的比例(其利息覆蓋率)。這種方法的優點是,我們既考慮了債務的絕對量(淨負債與 EBITDA),又考慮到了與該債務相關的實際利息支出(其利息覆蓋率)。
Noble has net debt of just 0.44 times EBITDA, indicating that it is certainly not a reckless borrower. And this view is supported by the solid interest coverage, with EBIT coming in at 9.9 times the interest expense over the last year. On top of that, Noble grew its EBIT by 71% over the last twelve months, and that growth will make it easier to handle its debt. There's no doubt that we learn most about debt from the balance sheet. But ultimately the future profitability of the business will decide if Noble can strengthen its balance sheet over time. So if you're focused on the future you can check out this free report showing analyst profit forecasts.
Noble的淨債務只有EBITDA的0.44倍,這表明它絕對不是一個不負責任的借款人。並且這個觀點得到了堅實的利息覆蓋的支持,上一年EBIT是利息支出的9.9倍。此外,Noble在過去的十二個月中將EBIT增長了71%,這種增長將使它更容易處理其債務。毫無疑問,我們從資產負債表中了解到了大部分有關債務的信息。但是,最終業務的未來盈利能力將決定Noble是否能隨着時間的推移加強其資產負債表。因此,如果你關注於未來,可以查看這個免費的報告,其中顯示了分析師的利潤預測。
Finally, a company can only pay off debt with cold hard cash, not accounting profits. So we always check how much of that EBIT is translated into free cash flow. In the last two years, Noble's free cash flow amounted to 34% of its EBIT, less than we'd expect. That weak cash conversion makes it more difficult to handle indebtedness.
最後,公司只能用實實在在的現金而不是會計利潤來償還債務。因此,我們始終檢查EBIT中有多少被轉化爲自由現金流。在過去兩年中,Noble的自由現金流總額僅爲EBIT的34%,低於我們的預期。這種弱的現金轉換使處理債務變得更加困難。
Our View
我們的觀點
The good news is that Noble's demonstrated ability to grow its EBIT delights us like a fluffy puppy does a toddler. But truth be told we feel its conversion of EBIT to free cash flow does undermine this impression a bit. Zooming out, Noble seems to use debt quite reasonably; and that gets the nod from us. After all, sensible leverage can boost returns on equity. When analysing debt levels, the balance sheet is the obvious place to start. But ultimately, every company can contain risks that exist outside of the balance sheet. These risks can be hard to spot. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Noble you should know about.
好消息是,Noble展示了讓我們高興得像嬰兒一樣的能力來增加EBIT。但是說實話,我們認爲它將EBIT轉化爲自由現金流的能力會削弱這種印象。總之,Noble似乎以相當合理的方法使用債務,並且這一點得到了我們的認可。畢竟,合理的槓桿比率可以提高資產回報率。在分析債務水平時,資產負債表是顯而易見的起點。但是,最終,每個公司都可能包含除資產負債表之外的風險。這些風險可能很難發現。每個公司都擁有這些風險,我們已經發現了Noble的兩個警告信號,你需要知道。
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.
當然,如果您是那種喜歡購買沒有負債負擔的股票的投資者,則今天就可以發現我們的獨家淨現金增長股清單。
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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.
對本文有任何反饋?對內容有任何疑慮?請直接與我們聯繫。或者,發送電子郵件至editorial-team@simplywallst.com。
這篇文章是Simply Wall St的一般性文章。我們根據歷史數據和分析師預測提供評論,只使用公正的方法論,我們的文章並不意味着提供任何金融建議。文章不構成買賣任何股票的建議,也不考慮您的目標或您的財務狀況。我們的目標是帶給您基本數據驅動的長期關注分析。請注意,我們的分析可能不考慮最新的價格敏感公司公告或定性材料。Simply Wall St沒有任何股票頭寸。
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com
對本文有任何反饋?對內容有任何疑慮?請直接與我們聯繫。或者,發送電子郵件至editorial-team@simplywallst.com。