In what is shaping up to be a pretty volatile summer in Europe, I wanted to turn my focus toward several international companies that are carrying very minimal debt and happen to be paying very nice dividends. After developing a screen, I found two high-yielding companies that actually carry very minimal total debt-to-total cash ratios. That ratio is simply formulated by taking the company's total debt and dividing by the total cash. I consider any ratio under "1" very healthy, under "2" satisfactory, under "3" cautionary, and anything over "3" a warning sign.
Symbol | Price | Mkt Cap | Total Debt | Total Cash | Ratio | Yield |
11.25 | 2.21 B | 31.05 M | 0.044 | 7.60% | ||
2.07 | 5.25 B | 1.26 B | 0.708 | 4.05% | ||
Telecom Argentina S.A. , which trades in a 52-week range of $10.00/share (52-week low) and $26.32/share (52-week high), has a market cap of $2.21 billion, was given a rating of a "1," based on the statistical calculations of my formula.
TEO, which yields 7.6% ($0.88), currently has $692.39 million in total cash on its books (it should be noted that the company currently has $1.06 billion in operating cash flow, and $449.93 million in free cash flow) and only has $31.05 million in total debt. That equates to a total debt to total cash ratio of 0.044, which in my opinion, is a very positive catalyst moving forward. Trading at a 31.1% discount to its 200-day moving average, TEO was recently downgraded to a Hold from a Buy at The Street.com.
United Microelectronics Corp. , which trades in a 52-week range of $1.77/share (52-week low) and $2.77/share (52-week high), has a market cap of $5.23 billion, was given a rating of a "1," based on the statistical calculations of my formula.
UMC, which yields 4.05% ($0.08), currently has $1.78 billion in total cash on its books (it should be noted that the company currently has $1.31 billion in operating cash flow, and -$492.39 million in free cash flow) and only has $1.26 billion in total debt. That equates to a total debt to total cash ratio of 0.708, which in my opinion, is a very positive catalyst moving forward. Trading at a 13.7% discount to its 200-day moving average, UMC recently announced a year over year increase in June sales.
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.
