Debt-Equity Ratio, Proprietary Ratio, Interest Coverage Ratio?

Debt/Equity Ratio is a debt ratio used to measure a company's financial leverage, calculated by dividing a company’s total liabilities by its stockholders' equity. The D/E ratio indicates how much debt a company is using to finance its assets relative to the amount of value represented in shareholders’ equity.

Low debt-to-equity ratio suits companies operating under volatile and unpredictable business environments as they cannot afford financial commitments that they cannot meet in case of sudden downturns in economic activity.

he proprietary ratio (also known as the equity ratio) is the proportion of shareholders' equity to total assets, and as such provides a rough estimate of the amount of capitalization currently used to support a business. If the ratio is high, this indicates that a company has a sufficient amount of equity to support the functions of the business, and probably has room in its financial structure to take on additional debt, if necessary. Conversely, a low ratio indicates that a business may be making use of too much debt or trade payables, rather than equity, to support operations (which may place the company at risk of bankruptcy).

The interest coverage ratio is a debt ratio and profitability ratio used to determine how easily a company can pay interest on outstanding debt. The interest coverage ratio may be calculated by dividing a company's earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) during a given period by the amount a company must pay in interest on its debts during the same period.