Question

Park Company reports interest expense of $340,000 and income before interest expense and income taxes of $6,120,000.(1) Compute its times interest earned.(2) Park's competitor's times interest earned is 12.0. Is Park in a better or worse position than its competitor to make interest payments if the economy turns bad

Answer 1

Answer: 1. 18 times

2. Park is in better position

Explanation:

1. Times interest earned is a financial ratio that measures interest coverage. It's essentially to check if a company can pay it's debt payments and is calculated by either EBIT or EBITDA divided by the total interest expense. The higher the better and anything above 2.5 times is usually considered.

Calculating would therefore be,

= $6,120,000 /$340,000

= 18 times.

2. As mentioned in the first answer, for the Times interest earned, the higher it is, the more favourable it is. So Park Company will be considered safer and are most definitely in a better or worse position than its competitor to make interest payments if the economy turns bad. The fact that theirs is 18 means that they can pay off their interest expense 5 times more than their competitor who can only repay 12 times.

If you need any clarification do comment.