Is United Parcel Service (NYSE:UPS) A Risky Investment?

cheryl

I started this.
Staff member

Is United Parcel Service (NYSE:UPS) A Risky Investment? - Simply Wall ST

Legendary fund manager Li Lu (who Charlie Munger backed) once said, 'The biggest investment risk is not the volatility of prices, but whether you will suffer a permanent loss of capital.' 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 United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE:UPS) does have debt on its balance sheet. But the real question is whether this debt is making the company risky.

Why Does Debt Bring Risk?​

Debt assists a business until the business has trouble paying it off, either with new capital or with free cash flow. If things get really bad, the lenders can take control of the business. However, a more usual (but still expensive) situation is where a company must dilute shareholders at a cheap share price simply to get debt under control. Of course, the upside of debt is that it often represents cheap capital, especially when it replaces dilution in a company with the ability to reinvest at high rates of return. The first step when considering a company's debt levels is to consider its cash and debt together.
 

Gabba

It's a vicious cycle
yea, i hate to say it but ups is entirely replaceable. just think about how many people you run into on a daily basis that can't tell the difference between ups and fed ex.
 
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