What does interest coverage mean?

How many times the company's operating profit covers its interest bill.

How do you interpret interest coverage?

Higher is safer; below ~2× is a warning that earnings provide little cushion against the debt burden. Debt-free companies have no interest expense and the ratio is left blank.

How does interest coverage compare across companies?

Comparable across leveraged non-financials; less relevant for net-cash companies with negligible interest.

East-West Bancorp EWBC Interest coverage

Interest coverage at other companies

Wells Fargo & CompanyWFC

1.6×+0.1×

Citizens Financial GroupCFG

1.7×+0.2×

First Citizens BancSharesFCNCA

1.6×0.0×

Huntington BancsharesHBAN

1.6×0.0×

KeyCorpKEY

1.7×+0.7×

M&T BankMTB

2.1×+0.2×

Other financials

Income statement

See full

Revenue$773.7M+11.8%

Net income$357.8M+23.3%

EPS (diluted)$2.57+23.6%

Balance sheet

See full

Cash & equivalents$4.4B+28.7%

Total debt$184.3M+49.8%

Total equity$9.0B+13.5%

Total assets$82.9B+8.8%

Cash flow

See full

Operating cash flow$428.6M+54.3%

CapEx$99.0M+3,852%

Free cash flow$329.6M+19.7%

Valuation

See full

Market cap$17.37B+18.2%

Enterprise value$13.12B+14.7%

P/E12.5×-0.1×

P/S5.8×+0.2×

Profitability

See full

Net margin46.2%+2.2pp

Returns & leverage

See full

Return on equity16.5%+0.8pp

Debt / equity0×0.0×

Questions, answered.

What does interest coverage mean?: How many times the company's operating profit covers its interest bill.
How do you interpret interest coverage?: Higher is safer; below ~2× is a warning that earnings provide little cushion against the debt burden. Debt-free companies have no interest expense and the ratio is left blank.
How does interest coverage compare across companies?: Comparable across leveraged non-financials; less relevant for net-cash companies with negligible interest.