What is a good long term debt to shareholders equity ratio?
Henry Morales
Published Feb 14, 2026
around 1 to 1.5
A good debt to equity ratio is around 1 to 1.5. However, the ideal debt to equity ratio will vary depending on the industry because some industries use more debt financing than others. Capital-intensive industries like the financial and manufacturing industries often have higher ratios that can be greater than 2.
What does a debt to equity ratio of 1.4 mean?
Basic Formula The formula for debt-to-equity is the value of total assets at the end of a period divided by owners’ equity at the end of the period. Thus, the ratio is expressed as 1.4:1, which means the company has $1.40 in debt for every $1 of equity.
What is considered a good debt to equity ratio?
Generally, a good debt-to-equity ratio is anything lower than 1.0. A ratio of 2.0 or higher is usually considered risky. If a debt-to-equity ratio is negative, it means that the company has more liabilities than assets—this company would be considered extremely risky.
Is it bad to have long-term debt?
Cash Flow. A major drawback of long-term debt is that it restricts your monthly cash flow in the near term. The higher your debt balances, the more you commit to paying on them each month. This means you have to use more of your monthly earnings to repay debt than to make new investments to grow.
Is a low long-term debt to equity ratio good?
The ratio is calculated by taking the company’s long-term debt and dividing it by the book value of common equity. The greater a company’s leverage, the higher the ratio….The 5 lowest LT Debt / Equity Stocks in the Market.
| Ticker | NYQ:MAS |
|---|---|
| Name | Masco |
| LT Debt / Equity | -17382.35 |
| StockRank™ | 76 |
What does a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.5 mean?
The ratio is the number of times debt is to equity. Therefore, if a financial corporation’s ratio is 2.5 it means that the debt outstanding is 2.5 times larger than their equity. Higher debt can result in volatile earnings due to additional interest expense as well as increased vulnerability to business downturns.
What happens when debt to equity ratio is zero?
A higher debt ratio (0.6 or higher) makes it more difficult to borrow money. A debt ratio of zero would indicate that the firm does not finance increased operations through borrowing at all, which limits the total return that can be realized and passed on to shareholders.
Is long-term debt bad for a company?
Cash Flow. A major drawback of long-term debt is that it restricts your monthly cash flow in the near term. The higher your debt balances, the more you commit to paying on them each month. It also limits your ability to build up a safety net of cash savings to cover unexpected costs of doing business.
