Interest Ratio Coverage (from WSJ)

What Is the Interest Coverage Ratio?

It measures a company’s ability to make its debt payments. Why it matters

The ratio can be calculated by dividing operating income—typically defined as earnings before interest and taxes, or EBIT—by its interest expense. (There are variations, but this is the simplest.)

“If your coverage ratio is 1, then you have no cushion,” says Dan Gode, accounting professor at the New York University Stern School of Business. Simply: When a company’s operating earnings are equal to its borrowing costs (giving it a coverage ratio of 1.0), there is no margin for error. If the business meets a rough patch and earnings drop, then the company might not be able to pay the interest on its loans. “If the ratio is north of 3 or 4, then you have some cushion,” Prof. Gode adds.

Speculation over the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate intentions comes into play. Higher interest rates for corporate borrowing will push coverage ratios down unless profits increase. For some companies, that won’t matter much; for others, it will make an already heavy debt burden harder to bear.

“Overall corporate debt might not be high, but that masks great variation” among firms, Prof. Gode says. He points to Apple Inc. as a cash-rich company with relatively little debt. “And then there are plenty that have huge levels of debt,” including some energy companies and hospitals.

Mr. Constable is a writer in New York. He can be reached at reports@wsj.com.