A Look Into Amazon's Debt

Over the past three months, shares of Amazon.com AMZN moved lower by nan%. Before having a look at the importance of debt, let us look at how much debt Amazon.com has.

Amazon.com's Debt

Based on Amazon.com's balance sheet as of February 4, 2022, long-term debt is at $48.74 billion and current debt is at $1.49 billion, amounting to $50.23 billion in total debt. Adjusted for $36.22 billion in cash-equivalents, the company's net debt is at $14.02 billion.

Let's define some of the terms we used in the paragraph above. Current debt is the portion of a company's debt which is due within 1 year, while long-term debt is the portion due in more than 1 year. Cash equivalents include cash and any liquid securities with maturity periods of 90 days or less. Total debt equals current debt plus long-term debt minus cash equivalents.

Investors look at the debt-ratio to understand how much financial leverage a company has. Amazon.com has $420.55 billion in total assets, therefore making the debt-ratio 0.12. As a rule of thumb, a debt-ratio more than one indicates that a considerable portion of debt is funded by assets. A higher debt-ratio can also imply that the company might be putting itself at risk for default, if interest rates were to increase. However, debt-ratios vary widely across different industries. A debt ratio of 40% might be higher for one industry and normal for another.

Why Investors Look At Debt?

Debt is an important factor in the capital structure of a company, and can help it attain growth. Debt usually has a relatively lower financing cost than equity, which makes it an attractive option for executives.

However, due to interest-payment obligations, cash-flow of a company can be impacted. Having financial leverage also allows companies to use additional capital for business operations, allowing equity owners to retain excess profit, generated by the debt capital.

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