The following is a review of the Corporate Finance principles designed to address the learning outcome

statements set forth by CFA Institute. Cross-Reference to CFA Institute Assigned Reading #37.

MEASURES OF LEVERAGE
Study Session 11

EXAM FOCUS
Here we define and calculate various measures of leverage and the firm
characteristics that affect the levels of operating and financial leverage. Operating
leverage magnifies the effect of changes in sales on operating earnings. Financial
leverage magnifies the effect of changes in operating earnings on net income
(earnings per share). The breakeven quantity of sales is that quantity of sales for
which total revenue just covers total costs. The operating breakeven quantity of
sales is the quantity of sales for which total revenue just covers total operating
costs. Be sure you understand how a firm’s decisions regarding its operating
structure and scale and its decisions regarding the use of debt and equity financing
(its capital structure) affect its breakeven levels of sales and the uncertainty
regarding its operating earnings and net income.

LOS 37.a: Define and explain leverage, business risk, sales risk, operating risk, and
financial risk and classify a risk.
CFA® Program Curriculum, Volume 4, page 126

Leverage, in the sense we use it here, refers to the amount of fixed costs a firm has.
These fixed costs may be fixed operating expenses, such as building or equipment
leases, or fixed financing costs, such as interest payments on debt. Greater leverage
leads to greater variability of the firm’s after-tax operating earnings and net income.
A given change in sales will lead to a greater change in operating earnings when the
firm employs operating leverage; a given change in operating earnings will lead to a
greater change in net income when the firm employs financial leverage.

Professor’s Note: The British refer to leverage as “gearing.”

Business risk refers to the risk associated with a firm’s operating income and is the
result of uncertainty about a firm’s revenues and the expenditures necessary to
produce those revenues. Business risk is the combination of sales risk and operating
risk.
Sales risk is the uncertainty about the firm’s sales.
 Operating risk refers to the additional uncertainty about operating earnings
caused by fixed operating costs. The greater the proportion of fixed costs to
variable costs, the greater a firm’s operating risk.
Financial risk refers to the additional risk that the firm’s common stockholders must
bear when a firm uses fixed cost (debt) financing. When a company finances its
operations with debt, it takes on fixed expenses in the form of interest payments.
The greater the proportion of debt in a firm’s capital structure, the greater the
firm’s financial risk.

LOS 37.b: Calculate and interpret the degree of operating leverage, the degree of
financial leverage, and the degree of total leverage.
CFA® Program Curriculum, Volume 4, page 128

The degree of operating leverage (DOL) is defined as the percentage change in

operating income (EBIT) that results from a given percentage change in sales:

To calculate a firm’s DOL for a particular level of unit sales, Q, DOL is:

where:
Q = quantity of units sold
P = price per unit
V = variable cost per unit
F = fixed costs

Multiplying, we have:

where:
S = sales
TVC = total variable costs
F = fixed costs

Note that in this form, the denominator is operating earnings (EBIT).

Example: Degree of operating leverage

Consider the costs for the projects presented in the following table. Assuming that 100,000 units are
produced for each firm, calculate the DOL for Atom Company and Beta Company.

Operating Costs for Atom Company and Beta Company

Atom Company Beta Company

 Price $4.00 $4.00

Variable costs $3.00 $2.00

Fixed costs $40,000 $120,000

Revenue $400,000 $400,000

Answer:

For Atom Company:

For Beta Company:

The results indicate that if Beta Company has a 10% increase in sales, its EBIT will increase by 2.50 × 10% =
25%, while for Atom Company, the increase in EBIT will be 1.67 × 10% = 16.7%.

It is important to note that the degree of operating leverage for a company depends
on the level of sales. For example, if Atom Company sells 300,000 units, the DOL is
decreased:

DOL is highest at low levels of sales and declines at higher levels of sales.
The degree of financial leverage (DFL) is interpreted as the ratio of the percentage
change in net income (or EPS) to the percentage change in EBIT:

For a particular level of operating earnings, DFL is calculated as:

 Professor’s Note: The terms “earnings per share” (EPS) and “net income” are used
interchangeably in this topic review.

Example: Degree of financial leverage

From the previous example, Atom Company’s operating income for selling 100,000 units is $60,000.
Assume that Atom Company has annual interest expense of $18,000. If Atom’s EBIT increases by 10%, by
how much will its earnings per share increase?

Answer:

Hence, earnings per share will increase by 14.3%.

Professor’s Note: Look back at the formulas for DOL and DFL and convince yourself that if there
are no fixed costs, DOL is equal to one, and that if there are no interest costs, DFL is equal to
one. Values of one mean no leverage. No fixed costs, no operating leverage. No interest costs,
no financial leverage. This should help tie these formulas to the concepts and help you know
when you have the formulas right (or wrong). If you plug in zero for fixed costs, DOL should be
one, and if you plug in zero for interest, DFL should be one.

The degree of total leverage (DTL) combines the degree of operating leverage and
financial leverage. DTL measures the sensitivity of EPS to change in sales. DTL is
computed as:

Example: Degree of total leverage

 Continuing with our previous example, how much will Atom’s EPS increase if Atom increases its sales by
10%?

Answer:

From the previous examples:

DOLAtom = 1.67

DFLAtom = 1.43

DTL = DOL × DFL = 1.67 × 1.43 = 2.39

Professor’s Note: There is some rounding here. If we use 1.6666 for DOL and 1.42857
for DFL, we obtain the DTL of 2.38.

Note that we also could have calculated the DTL the long way. From the previous example, the current
value of Atom’s dollar sales is $4 × 100,000 = $400,000.

%∆EPS = DTL × %∆sales = 2.38 × 10% = 23.8%

EPS will increase by 23.8%.

LOS 37.c: Analyze the effect of financial leverage on a company’s net income and
return on equity.
CFA® Program Curriculum, Volume 4, page 137

The use of financial leverage significantly increases the risk and potential reward to
common stockholders. The following examples involving Beta Company illustrate
how financial leverage affects net income and shareholders’ return on equity (ROE).

Example 1: Beta Company financed with 100% equity

Assume that the Beta Company has $500,000 in assets that are financed with 100% equity. Fixed costs are
$120,000. Beta is expected to sell 100,000 units, resulting in operating income of [100,000 ($4 – $2)] –
$120,000 = $80,000. Beta’s tax rate is 40%. Calculate Beta’s net income and return on equity if its EBIT
increases or decreases by 10%.

Answer:

Beta’s Return on Equity With 100% Equity Financing

EBIT Less 10% Expected EBIT EBIT Plus 10%

 EBIT $72,000 $80,000 $88,000

Interest expense 0 0 0

Income before taxes $72,000 $80,000 $88,000

Taxes at 40% 28,800 32,000 35,200

Net income $43,200 $48,000 $52,800

Shareholders’ equity $500,000 $500,000 $500,000

Return on equity (ROE) 8.64% 9.60% 10.56%

Example 2: Beta Company financed with 50% equity and 50% debt

Continuing the previous example, assume that Beta Company is financed with 50% equity and 50% debt.
The interest rate on the debt is 6%. Calculate Beta’s net income and return on equity if its EBIT increases
or decreases by 10%. Beta’s tax rate is 40%.

Answer:

Beta’s Return on Equity with 50% Equity Financing

EBIT Less 10% Expected EBIT EBIT Plus 10%

EBIT $72,000 $80,000 $88,000

Interest expense at 6% 15,000 15,000 15,000

Income before taxes $57,000 $65,000 $73,000

Taxes at 40% 22,800 26,000 29,200

Net income $34,200 $39,000 $43,800

Shareholders’ equity $250,000 $250,000 $250,000

Return on equity (ROE) 13.68% 15.60% 17.52%

The interest expense associated with using debt represents a fixed cost that reduces
net income. However, the lower net income value is spread over a smaller base of
shareholders’ equity, serving to magnify the ROE. In all three of the scenarios shown
in the two examples, ROE is higher using leverage than it is without leverage.
Further analyzing the differences between the examples, we can see that the use of
financial leverage not only increases the level of ROE, it also increases the rate of
change for ROE. In the unleveraged scenario, ROE varies directly with the change in
EBIT. For an increase in EBIT of 10%, the ROE increases from 9.60% to 10.56%, for a
rate of change of 10%. In the leveraged scenario, ROE is more volatile. For an
increase in EBIT of 10%, the ROE increases from 15.60% to 17.52%, for a rate of
change of 12.3%.
The use of financial leverage increases the risk of default but also increases the
potential return for equity holders.

Professor’s Note: Recall how this relationship is reflected in the DuPont formula used to analyze
ROE. One of the components of the DuPont formula is the equity multiplier (assets/equity),
which captures the effect of financial leverage on ROE.

LOS 37.d: Calculate the breakeven quantity of sales and determine the company’s
net income at various sales levels.;

LOS 37.e: Calculate and interpret the operating breakeven quantity of sales.
CFA® Program Curriculum, Volume 4, page 143

The level of sales that a firm must generate to cover all of its fixed and variable
costs is called the breakeven quantity. The breakeven quantity of sales is the
quantity of sales for which revenues equal total costs, so that net income is zero.
We can calculate the breakeven quantity by simply determining how many units
must be sold to just cover total fixed costs.
For each unit sold, the contribution margin, which is the difference between price
and variable cost per unit, is available to help cover fixed costs. We can thus
describe the breakeven quantity of sales, QBE, as:

Example: Breakeven quantity of sales

Consider the prices and costs for Atom Company and Beta Company shown in the following table.
Compute and illustrate the breakeven quantity of sales for each company.

Operating Costs for Atom Company and Beta Company

 Atom Company Beta Company

Price $4.00 $4.00

Variable costs $3.00 $2.00

Fixed operating costs $10,000 $80,000

Fixed financing costs $30,000 $40,000

Answer:

For Atom Company, the breakeven quantity is:

Similarly, for Beta Company, the breakeven quantity is:

The breakeven quantity and the relationship between sales revenue, total costs, net
income, and net loss are illustrated in Figure 1 and 2.

Figure 1: Breakeven Analysis for Atom Company

Figure 2: Breakeven Analysis for Beta Company

We can also calculate an operating breakeven quantity of sales. In this case, we
consider only fixed operating costs and ignore fixed financing costs. The calculation
is simply:

Example: Operating breakeven quantity of sales

Calculate the operating breakeven quantity of sales for Atom and Beta, using the same data from the
previous example.

Answer:

For Atom, the operating breakeven quantity of sales is:

$10,000 / ($4.00 – $3.00) = 10,000 units

For Beta, the operating breakeven quantity of sales is:

$80,000 / ($4.00 – $2.00) = 40,000 units

We can summarize the effects of leverage on net income through an examination of

Figure 1 and 2. Other things equal, a firm that chooses operating and financial
structures that result in greater total fixed costs will have a higher breakeven
quantity of sales. Leverage of either type magnifies the effects of changes in sales
on net income. The further a firm’s sales are from its breakeven level of sales, the
greater the magnifying effects of leverage on net income.
These same conclusions apply to operating leverage and the operating breakeven
quantity of sales. One company may choose a larger scale of operations (larger
factory), resulting in a greater operating breakeven quantity of sales and greater
leverage, other things equal.
Note that the degree of total leverage is calculated for a particular level of sales.
The slope of the net income line in Figure 1 and 2 is related to total leverage but is
not the same thing. The degree of total leverage is different for every level of sales.
 KEY CONCEPTS

LOS 37.a
Leverage increases the risk and potential return of a firm’s earnings and cash flows.
Operating leverage increases with fixed operating costs.
Financial leverage increases with fixed financing costs.
Sales risk is uncertainty about the firm’s sales.
Business risk refers to the uncertainty about operating earnings (EBIT) and results
from variability in sales and expenses. Business risk is magnified by operating
leverage.
Financial risk refers to the additional variability of EPS compared to EBIT. Financial
risk increases with greater use of fixed cost financing (debt) in a company’s capital
structure.

LOS 37.b

The degree of operating leverage (DOL) is calculated as and is

interpreted as

The degree of financial leverage (DFL) is calculated as and is interpreted as

The degree of total leverage (DTL) is the combination of operating and financial
leverage and is calculated as DOL × DFL and interpreted as

LOS 37.c
Using more debt and less equity in a firm’s capital structure reduces net income
through added interest expense but also reduces net equity. The net effect can be
to either increase or decrease ROE.

LOS 37.d
The breakeven quantity of sales is the amount of sales necessary to produce a net
income of zero (total revenue just covers total costs) and can be calculated as:
Net income at various sales levels can be calculated as total revenue (i.e., price ×
quantity sold) minus total costs (i.e., total fixed costs plus total variable costs).

LOS 37.e
The operating breakeven quantity of sales is the amount of sales necessary to
produce an operating income of zero (total revenue just covers total operating
costs) and can be calculated as:
 CONCEPT CHECKERS
1. Business risk is the combination of:
A. operating risk and financial risk.
B. sales risk and financial risk.
C. operating risk and sales risk.
2. Which of the following is a key determinant of operating leverage?
A. Level and cost of debt.
B. The competitive nature of the business.
C. The trade-off between fixed and variable costs.
3. Which of the following statements about capital structure and leverage is
most accurate?
A. Financial leverage is directly related to operating leverage.
B. Increasing the corporate tax rate will not affect capital structure
decisions.
C. A firm with low operating leverage has a small proportion of its total
costs in fixed costs.
4. Jayco, Inc., sells blue ink for $4 a bottle. The ink’s variable cost per bottle is
$2. Ink has fixed operating costs of $4,000 and fixed financing costs of $6,000.
What is Jayco’s breakeven quantity of sales, in units?
A. 2,000.
B. 3,000.
C. 5,000.
5. Jayco, Inc., sells blue ink for $4 a bottle. The ink’s variable cost per bottle is
$2. Ink has fixed operating costs of $4,000 and fixed financing costs of $6,000.
What is Jayco’s operating breakeven quantity of sales, in units?
A. 2,000.
B. 3,000.
C. 5,000.
6. If Jayco’s sales increase by 10%, Jayco’s EBIT increases by 15%. If Jayco’s EBIT
increases by 10%, Jayco’s EPS increases by 12%. Jayco’s degree of operating
leverage (DOL) and degree of total leverage (DTL) are closest to:
A. 1.2 DOL and 1.5 DTL.
B. 1.2 DOL and 2.7 DTL.
C. 1.5 DOL and 1.8 DTL.
Use the following data to answer Questions 7 and 8.
Jayco, Inc., sells 10,000 units at a price of $5 per unit. Jayco’s fixed costs are $8,000,
interest expense is $2,000, variable costs are $3 per unit, and EBIT is $12,000.
 7. Jayco’s degree of operating leverage (DOL) and degree of financial leverage
(DFL) are closest to:
A. 2.50 DOL and 1.00 DFL.
B. 1.67 DOL and 2.00 DFL.
C. 1.67 DOL and 1.20 DFL.
8. Jayco’s degree of total leverage (DTL) is closest to:
A. 2.00.
B. 1.75.
C. 1.50.
9. Vischer Concrete has $1.2 million in assets that are currently financed with
100% equity. Vischer’s EBIT is $300,000, and its tax rate is 30%. If Vischer
changes its capital structure (recapitalizes) to include 40% debt, what is
Vischer’s ROE before and after the change? Assume that the interest rate on
debt is 5%.
ROE at 100% equity ROE at 60% equity
A. 17.5% 26.8%
B. 25.0% 26.8%
C. 25.0% 37.5%

For more questions related to this topic review, log in to your Schweser online
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OnDemand video lectures, if you have purchased these products.

ANSWERS – CONCEPT CHECKERS

1. Business risk is the combination of:
A. operating risk and financial risk.
B. sales risk and financial risk.
C. operating risk and sales risk.
Business risk refers to the risk associated with a firm’s operating income and
is the result of uncertainty about a firm’s revenues and the expenditures
necessary to produce those revenues. Business risk is the combination of
sales risk (the uncertainty associated with the price and quantity of goods and
services sold) and operating risk (the leverage created by the use of fixed
costs in the firm’s operations).
2. Which of the following is a key determinant of operating leverage?
A. Level and cost of debt.
B. The competitive nature of the business.
C. The trade-off between fixed and variable costs.
The extent to which costs are fixed determines operating leverage.
3. Which of the following statements about capital structure and leverage is
most accurate?
A. Financial leverage is directly related to operating leverage.
B. Increasing the corporate tax rate will not affect capital structure
decisions.
C. A firm with low operating leverage has a small proportion of its total
costs in fixed costs.
If fixed costs are a small percentage of total costs, operating leverage is low.
Operating leverage is separate from financial leverage, which depends on the
amount of debt in the capital structure. Increasing the tax rate would make
the after-tax cost of debt cheaper.
4. Jayco, Inc., sells blue ink for $4 a bottle. The ink’s variable cost per bottle is
$2. Ink has fixed operating costs of $4,000 and fixed financing costs of $6,000.
What is Jayco’s breakeven quantity of sales, in units?
A. 2,000.
B. 3,000.
C. 5,000.

5. Jayco, Inc., sells blue ink for $4 a bottle. The ink’s variable cost per bottle is
$2. Ink has fixed operating costs of $4,000 and fixed financing costs of $6,000.
What is Jayco’s operating breakeven quantity of sales, in units?
A. 2,000.
B. 3,000.
C. 5,000.

6. If Jayco’s sales increase by 10%, Jayco’s EBIT increases by 15%. If Jayco’s EBIT
increases by 10%, Jayco’s EPS increases by 12%. Jayco’s degree of operating
leverage (DOL) and degree of total leverage (DTL) are closest to:
A. 1.2 DOL and 1.5 DTL.
B. 1.2 DOL and 2.7 DTL.
C. 1.5 DOL and 1.8 DTL.

Use the following data to answer Questions 7 and 8.

Jayco, Inc., sells 10,000 units at a price of $5 per unit. Jayco’s fixed costs are $8,000,
interest expense is $2,000, variable costs are $3 per unit, and EBIT is $12,000.

7. Jayco’s degree of operating leverage (DOL) and degree of financial leverage

(DFL) are closest to:
A. 2.50 DOL and 1.00 DFL.
B. 1.67 DOL and 2.00 DFL.
C. 1.67 DOL and 1.20 DFL.

8. Jayco’s degree of total leverage (DTL) is closest to:

A. 2.00.
B. 1.75.
C. 1.50.

, or because we
calculated the components in Question 7, DTL = DOL × DFL = 1.67 × 1.2 = 2.0
9. Vischer Concrete has $1.2 million in assets that are currently financed with
100% equity. Vischer’s EBIT is $300,000, and its tax rate is 30%. If Vischer
changes its capital structure (recapitalizes) to include 40% debt, what is
Vischer’s ROE before and after the change? Assume that the interest rate on
debt is 5%.
ROE at 100% equity ROE at 60% equity
A. 17.5% 26.8%
B. 25.0% 26.8%
C. 25.0% 37.5%

With 100% equity:

EBIT $300,000
Interest expense 0
Income before taxes $300,000
Taxes at 30% 90,000
Net income $210,000
Shareholder’s equity $1,200,000
ROE = NI/equity 17.5%
With 60% equity:

EBIT $300,000
Interest expense ($480,000 at 5%) 24,000
Income before taxes $276,000
Taxes at 30% 82,800
Net income $193,200
Shareholders’ equity $720,000
ROE = NI/equity 26.8%