Solvency Ratios vs. Liquidity Ratios: An Overview
Solvency and liquidity are both terms that refer to an enterprise's state of financial health, but with some notable differences.
Solvency refers to an enterprise's capacity to meet its long-term financial commitments. Liquidity refers to an enterprise's ability to pay short-term obligations—the term also refers to a company's capability to sell assets quickly to raise cash.
Key Takeaways
- Solvency and liquidity are both important for a company's financial health and an enterprise's ability to meet its obligations.
- Liquidity refers to both an enterprise's ability to pay short-term bills and debts and a company's capability to sell assets quickly to raise cash.
- Solvency refers to a company's ability to meet long-term debts and continue operating into the future.
Liquidity Ratios
A company with adequate liquidity will have enough cash available to pay its ongoing bills in the short run. Here are some of the most popular liquidity ratios:
Current Ratio
Current ratio = Current assets/ Current liabilities
The current ratio measures a company's ability to pay off its current liabilities (payable within one year) with its current assets such as cash, accounts receivable, and inventories. The higher the ratio, the better the company's liquidity position.
Quick Ratio
Quick ratio = (Current assets – Inventories) / Current liabilities
OR
Quick ratio = (Cash and equivalents + Marketable securities + Accounts receivable) / Currentliabilities
The quick ratio measures a company's ability to meet its short-term obligations with its most liquid assetsand therefore excludes inventories from its current assets. It is also known as the "acid-test ratio."
Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)
Days sales outstanding (DSO) = (Accounts receivable / Total credit sales) x Number of days in sales
Days sales outstanding, or DSO, refers to the average number of days it takes a company to collect payment after it makes a sale. A higher DSO means that a company is taking unduly long to collect payment and is tying up capital in receivables. DSOs are generally calculated quarterly or annually.
Solvency Ratios
A solvent company is one that owns more than it owes; in other words, it has a positive net worth and a manageable debt load. While liquidity ratios focus on a firm's ability to meet short-term obligations, solvency ratios consider a company's long-term financial wellbeing. Here are some of the most popular solvency ratios.
Debt-to-Equity (D/E)
Debt to equity = Total debt / Total equity
The debt-to-equity (D/E) ratio indicates the degree of financial leverage (DFL) being used by the business and includes both short-term and long-term debt. A rising debt-to-equity ratio implies higher interest expenses, and beyond a certain point, itmay affect a company's credit rating, making it more expensive to raise more debt.
Debt-to-Assets
Debt to assets = Total debt / Total assets
Another leverage measure, the debt-to-assets ratio measures the percentage of a company's assets that have been financed with debt (short-term and long-term). A higher ratio indicates a greater degree of leverage, and consequently, financial risk.
Interest Coverage Ratio
Interest coverage ratio = Operating income (or EBIT) / Interest expense
The interest coverage ratio measures the company's ability to meet the interest expense on its debt, which is equivalent to its earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT). The higher the ratio, the better the company's ability to cover its interest expense.
Special Considerations
There are key points that should be considered when using solvency and liquidity ratios. This includes using both sets of ratios—liquidity and solvency—to get the complete picture of a company's financial health; making this assessment on the basis of just one set of ratios may provide a misleading depiction of its finances.
As well, it's necessary to compare apples to apples. These ratios vary widely from industry to industry. A comparison of financial ratios for two or more companies would only be meaningful if they operate in the same industry.
Finally, it's necessary to evaluate trends. Analyzing the trend of these ratios over time will enable you to see if the company's position is improving or deteriorating. Pay particular attention to negative outliers to check if they are the result of a one-time event or indicate a worsening of the company's fundamentals.
Solvency and liquidity are equally important, and healthy companies areboth solvent and possess adequate liquidity. A number of liquidity ratiosand solvency ratios are used to measure a company's financial health, the most common of which are discussed below.
Solvency Ratios vs. Liquidity Ratios: Examples
Let's use some of these liquidity and solvency ratios to demonstrate their effectiveness in assessing a company's financial condition.
Consider two hypothetical companies, Liquids Inc. and Solvents Co., with the following assets and liabilities on their balance sheets (figures in millions of dollars).We assume that both companies operate in the same manufacturing sector, i.e., industrial glues and solvents.
| Balance Sheets for Liquids Inc. and Solvents Co. | ||
|---|---|---|
Balance Sheet (in millions of dollars) | Liquids Inc. | Solvents Co. |
Cash | $5 | $1 |
Marketable securities | $5 | $2 |
Accountsreceivable | $10 | $2 |
Inventories | $10 | $5 |
Current assets (a) | $30 | $10 |
Plant & equipment (b) | $25 | $65 |
Intangible assets (c) | $20 | $0 |
Total assets (a + b + c) | $75 | $75 |
Current liabilities* (d) | $10 | $25 |
Long-term debt (e) | $50 | $10 |
Total liabilities (d + e) | $60 | $35 |
Shareholders' equity | $15 | $40 |
*In our example, we assume that "current liabilities" only consist of accounts payable and other liabilities, with no short-term debt. Since both companies are assumed to have only long-term debt, this is the only debt included in the solvency ratios shown below. If they did have short-term debt (which would show up in current liabilities), this would be added to long-term debt when computing the solvency ratios.
Liquids Inc.
- Current ratio = $30 / $10 = 3.0
- Quick ratio = ($30 – $10) / $10 = 2.0
- Debt to equity = $50 / $15 = 3.33
- Debt to assets = $50 / $75 = 0.67
Solvents Co.
- Current ratio = $10 / $25 = 0.40
- Quick ratio = ($10 – $5) / $25 = 0.20
- Debt to equity = $10 / $40 = 0.25
- Debt to assets = $10 / $75 = 0.13
We can draw a number of conclusions about the financial condition of these two companies from these ratios.
Liquids Inc. has a high degree of liquidity. Based on its current ratio, it has $3 of current assets for every dollar of current liabilities. Its quick ratio points to adequate liquidity even after excluding inventories, with $2 in assets that can be converted rapidly to cash for every dollar of current liabilities. However, financial leverage based on its solvency ratios appears quite high.
Debt exceeds equity by more than three times, while two-thirds of assets have been financed by debt. Note, as well, that close to half of non-current assets consist of intangible assets (such as goodwill and patents). As a result, the ratio of debt to tangible assets—calculated as ($50 / $55)—is 0.91, which means that over 90% of tangible assets (plantand equipment, inventories, etc.) have been financed by borrowing. To summarize, Liquids Inc. has a comfortable liquidity position, but it has a dangerously high degree of leverage.
Solvents Co. is in a different position. The company's current ratio of 0.4 indicates an inadequate degree of liquidity with only $0.40 of current assets available to cover every $1 of current liabilities. The quick ratio suggests an even more dire liquidity position, with only 20 cents of liquid assets for every $1 of current liabilities. But financial leverage appears to be at comfortable levels, with debt at only 25% of equity and only 13% of assets financed by debt.
Even better, the company's asset base consists wholly of tangible assets, which means that Solvents Co.'s ratio of debt to tangible assets is about one-seventh that of Liquids Inc. (approximately 13% vs. 91%). Overall, Solvents Co. is in a dangerous liquidity situation, but it has a comfortable debt position.
A liquidity crisis can arise even at healthy companies if circ*mstances come about that make it difficult for them to meet short-term obligations such as repaying their loans and paying their employees.
The best example of such a far-reaching liquidity catastrophe in recent memory is the global credit crunch of 2007–09. Commercial paper—short-term debt that is issued by large companies to finance current assets and pay off current liabilities—played a central role in this financial crisis.
A near-total freeze in the $2 trillion U.S. commercial paper market made it exceedingly difficult for even the most solvent companies to raise short-term funds at that time and hastened the demise of giant corporations such as Lehman Brothers and General Motors (GM).
But unless the financial system is in a credit crunch, a company-specific liquidity crisis can be resolved relatively easily with a liquidity injection, as long as the company is solvent. This is because the company can pledge some assets if it is required to raise cash to tide over the liquidity squeeze. This route may not be available for a company that is technically insolvent since a liquidity crisis would exacerbate its financial situation and force it into bankruptcy.
Insolvency, however, indicates a more serious underlying problem that generally takes longer to work out, and it may necessitate major changes and radical restructuring of a company's operations. Management of a company faced with an insolvency will have to make tough decisions to reduce debt, such as closing plants, selling off assets, and laying off employees.
Going back to the earlier example, although Solvents Co. has a looming cash crunch, its low degree of leverage gives it considerable "wiggle room." One available option is to open a secured credit line by using some of its non-current assets as collateral, thereby giving it access to ready cash to tide over the liquidity issue. Liquids Inc., while not facing an imminent problem, could soon find itself hampered by its huge debt load, and it may need to take steps to reduce debt as soon as possible.
Article Sources
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. "The Commercial Paper Market, the Fed, and the 2007-2009 Financial Crisis."
I'm an expert in financial analysis with a deep understanding of solvency and liquidity ratios. My experience in this field allows me to provide insights into the concepts discussed in the article "Solvency Ratios vs. Liquidity Ratios: An Overview."
The article distinguishes between solvency and liquidity, emphasizing their importance in assessing a company's financial health. Solvency focuses on a company's ability to meet long-term financial commitments, while liquidity assesses its capacity to pay short-term obligations and quickly convert assets to cash.
Let's delve into the key concepts mentioned in the article:
Liquidity Ratios:
-
Current Ratio:
- Formula: Current assets / Current liabilities
- Purpose: Measures a company's ability to pay off short-term obligations.
- Higher ratio indicates better liquidity.
-
Quick Ratio (Acid-Test Ratio):
- Formula 1: (Current assets - Inventories) / Current liabilities
- Formula 2: (Cash and equivalents + Marketable securities + Accounts receivable) / Current liabilities
- Purpose: Assesses liquidity without including inventories.
- Higher ratio suggests better capability to meet short-term obligations.
-
Days Sales Outstanding (DSO):
- Formula: (Accounts receivable / Total credit sales) x Number of days in sales
- Purpose: Indicates the average time taken to collect payment after a sale.
- Higher DSO may signal delayed payment collection.
Solvency Ratios:
-
Debt-to-Equity (D/E) Ratio:
- Formula: Total debt / Total equity
- Purpose: Measures the financial leverage and risk associated with debt.
- Rising ratio may imply higher interest expenses and increased financial risk.
-
Debt-to-Assets Ratio:
- Formula: Total debt / Total assets
- Purpose: Measures the percentage of assets financed with debt.
- Higher ratio indicates a greater degree of leverage and financial risk.
-
Interest Coverage Ratio:
- Formula: Operating income (or EBIT) / Interest expense
- Purpose: Evaluates the company's ability to cover interest expenses.
- Higher ratio suggests better ability to meet interest payments.
Special Considerations:
- It's crucial to use both liquidity and solvency ratios for a comprehensive assessment of a company's financial health.
- Comparisons should be made within the same industry, as ratios vary widely across different sectors.
- Trends over time must be analyzed to identify improvements or deteriorations in a company's position.
Example Analysis:
The article provides a comparison of two hypothetical companies, Liquids Inc. and Solvents Co., using the mentioned ratios. Liquids Inc. appears to have high liquidity but faces a dangerous level of leverage, while Solvents Co. has a liquidity challenge but maintains a comfortable debt position.
In conclusion, a balanced approach to both solvency and liquidity ratios is essential for a holistic understanding of a company's financial condition. These ratios provide valuable insights for investors, creditors, and management in making informed decisions about a company's financial health.
