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Zacks.com featured highlights include: Procter & Gamble, MarineMax, Saia, Quanex Building Products and Cooper Tire & Rubber

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – January 14, 2021 – Stocks in this week’s article are The Procter & Gamble Company (PG - Free Report) , MarineMax, Inc. (HZO - Free Report) , Saia, Inc. (SAIA - Free Report) , Quanex Building Products Corporation (NX - Free Report) and Cooper Tire & Rubber Company .

Buy These 5 Low Leverage Stocks to Avoid Debt-Related Woes

Each and every company needs substantial amount of funds, technically referred to as capital, to run its operations smoothly and expand the same. Here comes the concept of leverage, which, in terms of corporate finance, refers to the use of borrowed capital since no company can run endlessly on its own funds.

Now this borrowed capital can be obtained by a firm either through debt or through equity. Empirically, it has been found that most companies prefer debt financing over equity financing because of its easy and cheap availability.

Yet, debt financing has its share of drawbacks. In particular, when the amount of debt a company bears becomes exorbitant, debt financing turns into a burden. This is because a high degree of financial leverage means high interest payments, which affect the company's bottom line.

Although the stock market has improved to some extent from the initial slump immediately after COVID-19 struck the world economy, any other uncertainty can once again disrupt that balance.  

So, to avoid huge losses at times of crisis, a prudent investor should choose stocks that bear low leverage since a debt-free corporation is rare to find. Therefore, measuring the leverage level of a particular stock forms an integral part of a safe investment procedure.  

Several leverage ratios have been developed to measure the amount of debt a company bears and the debt-to-equity ratio is one of the most common ratios.

Analyzing Debt/Equity

Debt-to-Equity Ratio = Total Liabilities/Shareholders’ Equity

This metric is a liquidity ratio that indicates the amount of financial risk a company bears. A company with a lower debt-to-equity ratio shows improved solvency for a company.

With the year 2020 almost at its end, investors might be eyeing stocks that have exhibited solid earnings growth year to date. But if a stock bears a high debt-to-equity ratio, in times of economic downturns, its so-called booming earnings picture might turn into a nightmare.

For the rest of this Screen of the Week article please visit Zacks.com at: https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/1245813/buy-these-5-low-leverage-stocks-to-avoid-debt-related-woes

Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material.

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Strong Stocks that Should Be in the News

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