Some say volatility, rather than debt, is the best way to think about risk as an investor, but Warren Buffett famously said that 'Volatility is far from synonymous with risk.' It's only natural to consider a company's balance sheet when you examine how risky it is, since debt is often involved when a business collapses. We note that IAC Inc. (NASDAQ:IAC) does have debt on its balance sheet. But should shareholders be worried about its use of debt?

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What Risk Does Debt Bring?

Debt is a tool to help businesses grow, but if a business is incapable of paying off its lenders, then it exists at their mercy. Ultimately, if the company can't fulfill its legal obligations to repay debt, shareholders could walk away with nothing. While that is not too common, we often do see indebted companies permanently diluting shareholders because lenders force them to raise capital at a distressed price. By replacing dilution, though, debt can be an extremely good tool for businesses that need capital to invest in growth at high rates of return. The first step when considering a company's debt levels is to consider its cash and debt together.

How Much Debt Does IAC Carry?

As you can see below, IAC had US$1.46b of debt at March 2025, down from US$2.02b a year prior. However, it does have US$1.16b in cash offsetting this, leading to net debt of about US$303.3m.

How Healthy Is IAC's Balance Sheet?

We can see from the most recent balance sheet that IAC had liabilities of US$627.4m falling due within a year, and liabilities of US$1.80b due beyond that. Offsetting this, it had US$1.16b in cash and US$391.8m in receivables that were due within 12 months. So its liabilities total US$873.4m more than the combination of its cash and short-term receivables.

While this might seem like a lot, it is not so bad since IAC has a market capitalization of US$3.26b, and so it could probably strengthen its balance sheet by raising capital if it needed to. But we definitely want to keep our eyes open to indications that its debt is bringing too much risk.

Check out our latest analysis for IAC

We use two main ratios to inform us about debt levels relative to earnings. The first is net debt divided by earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), while the second is how many times its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) covers its interest expense (or its interest cover, for short). Thus we consider debt relative to earnings both with and without depreciation and amortization expenses.

IAC has a very low debt to EBITDA ratio of 0.85 so it is strange to see weak interest coverage, with last year's EBIT being only 1.5 times the interest expense. So while we're not necessarily alarmed we think that its debt is far from trivial. Notably, IAC made a loss at the EBIT level, last year, but improved that to positive EBIT of US$100m in the last twelve months. When analysing debt levels, the balance sheet is the obvious place to start. But it is future earnings, more than anything, that will determine IAC's ability to maintain a healthy balance sheet going forward. So if you want to see what the professionals think, you might find this free report on analyst profit forecasts to be interesting.

Finally, a company can only pay off debt with cold hard cash, not accounting profits. So it's worth checking how much of the earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) is backed by free cash flow. Happily for any shareholders, IAC actually produced more free cash flow than EBIT over the last year. That sort of strong cash generation warms our hearts like a puppy in a bumblebee suit.

Our View

When it comes to the balance sheet, the standout positive for IAC was the fact that it seems able to convert EBIT to free cash flow confidently. But the other factors we noted above weren't so encouraging. To be specific, it seems about as good at covering its interest expense with its EBIT as wet socks are at keeping your feet warm. Considering this range of data points, we think IAC is in a good position to manage its debt levels. Having said that, the load is sufficiently heavy that we would recommend any shareholders keep a close eye on it. While IAC didn't make a statutory profit in the last year, its positive EBIT suggests that profitability might not be far away. Click here to see if its earnings are heading in the right direction, over the medium term.

At the end of the day, it's often better to focus on companies that are free from net debt. You can access our special list of such companies (all with a track record of profit growth). It's free.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.