Debt-to-Equity Ratio

The Debt-to-Equity ratio compares a company’s total debt to its shareholders’ equity, measuring how much debt it uses to finance its operations.

At 1.74x, CPB carries more than $1.74 of debt for every dollar of equity, which is higher than the sector median of 0.68x and places it at the 100th percentile among Consumer Defensive peers — meaning it has the highest debt-to-equity ratio in the group. The year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter changes are both listed as N/A, so no trend information is available to assess whether leverage is increasing or decreasing. Without a trend, the high level alone signals elevated financial risk compared to the sector, as a higher ratio makes the company more vulnerable to interest-rate shifts or earnings downturns. This elevated risk would typically be a negative signal, but it does not contradict the overall NEUTRAL verdict — it suggests that other factors, such as stable cash flows or strong earnings, may offset the leverage concern.

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