- J.P. Morgan analysts warn that companies with large amounts of floating-rate debt - including Chesapeake Energy, Freeport McMoRan, Ford and GE - could be at risk if the Fed decides to raise interest rates.
- Companies with variable/floating-rate debt suffer a more immediate impact by a rate hike than companies with fixed-rate debt, the analysts say; variable-rate coupons typically reset quarterly, meaning that changes in the base rate flow through almost immediately to variable-rate borrowers, while fixed-rate borrowers do not see such an impact until they refinance or issue new debt.
- JPM lists 25 companies - not including financials - that have the “highest variable-rate debt as a percentage of market cap": FMC, NRG, FCX, AES, CVC, LVLT, PVH, CHK, FE, DVA, THC, OI, CNX, F, HCA, FOSL, RCL, JOY, GE, ADS, ALLE, HBI, GT, DNB, AN