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WPP (LSE:WPP) Debt-to-EBITDA : 2.83 (As of Dec. 2023)


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What is WPP Debt-to-EBITDA?

Debt-to-EBITDA measures a company's ability to pay off its debt.

WPP's Short-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation for the quarter that ended in Dec. 2023 was £1,239 Mil. WPP's Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation for the quarter that ended in Dec. 2023 was £5,637 Mil. WPP's annualized EBITDA for the quarter that ended in Dec. 2023 was £2,433 Mil. WPP's annualized Debt-to-EBITDA for the quarter that ended in Dec. 2023 was 2.83.

A high Debt-to-EBITDA ratio generally means that a company may spend more time to paying off its debt. According to Joel Tillinghast's BIG MONEY THINKS SMALL: Biases, Blind Spots, and Smarter Investing, a ratio of Debt-to-EBITDA exceeding four is usually considered scary unless tangible assets cover the debt.

The historical rank and industry rank for WPP's Debt-to-EBITDA or its related term are showing as below:

LSE:WPP' s Debt-to-EBITDA Range Over the Past 10 Years
Min: -8.53   Med: 3.57   Max: 8.19
Current: 3.6

During the past 13 years, the highest Debt-to-EBITDA Ratio of WPP was 8.19. The lowest was -8.53. And the median was 3.57.

LSE:WPP's Debt-to-EBITDA is ranked worse than
70.16% of 677 companies
in the Media - Diversified industry
Industry Median: 1.67 vs LSE:WPP: 3.60

WPP Debt-to-EBITDA Historical Data

The historical data trend for WPP's Debt-to-EBITDA can be seen below:

* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD.
* For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.

* Premium members only.

WPP Debt-to-EBITDA Chart

WPP Annual Data
Trend Dec14 Dec15 Dec16 Dec17 Dec18 Dec19 Dec20 Dec21 Dec22 Dec23
Debt-to-EBITDA
Get a 7-Day Free Trial Premium Member Only Premium Member Only 6.68 -8.53 3.84 3.53 3.60

WPP Semi-Annual Data
Jun14 Dec14 Jun15 Dec15 Jun16 Dec16 Jun17 Dec17 Jun18 Dec18 Jun19 Dec19 Jun20 Dec20 Jun21 Dec21 Jun22 Dec22 Jun23 Dec23
Debt-to-EBITDA Get a 7-Day Free Trial Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only 3.47 4.30 2.96 5.50 2.83

Competitive Comparison of WPP's Debt-to-EBITDA

For the Advertising Agencies subindustry, WPP's Debt-to-EBITDA, along with its competitors' market caps and Debt-to-EBITDA data, can be viewed below:

* Competitive companies are chosen from companies within the same industry, with headquarter located in same country, with closest market capitalization; x-axis shows the market cap, and y-axis shows the term value; the bigger the dot, the larger the market cap. Note that "N/A" values will not show up in the chart.


WPP's Debt-to-EBITDA Distribution in the Media - Diversified Industry

For the Media - Diversified industry and Communication Services sector, WPP's Debt-to-EBITDA distribution charts can be found below:

* The bar in red indicates where WPP's Debt-to-EBITDA falls into.



WPP Debt-to-EBITDA Calculation

Debt-to-EBITDA measures a company's ability to pay off its debt.

WPP's Debt-to-EBITDA for the fiscal year that ended in Dec. 2023 is calculated as

Debt-to-EBITDA=Total Debt / EBITDA
=(Short-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation + Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation) / EBITDA
=(1238.6 + 5637.2) / 1909.9
=3.60

WPP's annualized Debt-to-EBITDA for the quarter that ended in Dec. 2023 is calculated as

Debt-to-EBITDA=Total Debt / EBITDA
=(Short-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation + Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation) / EBITDA
=(1238.6 + 5637.2) / 2432.6
=2.83

* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD.
* For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.

In the calculation of annual Debt-to-EBITDA, the EBITDA of the last fiscal year is used. In calculating the annualized quarterly data, the EBITDA data used here is two times the quarterly (Dec. 2023) EBITDA data.


WPP  (LSE:WPP) Debt-to-EBITDA Explanation

In the calculation of Debt-to-EBITDA, we use the total of Short-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation and Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation divided by EBITDA. In some calculations, Total Liabilities is used to for calculation.


Be Aware

A high Debt-to-EBITDA ratio generally means that a company may spend more time to paying off its debt.

According to Joel Tillinghast's BIG MONEY THINKS SMALL: Biases, Blind Spots, and Smarter Investing, a ratio of Debt-to-EBITDA exceeding four is usually considered scary unless tangible assets cover the debt.


WPP Debt-to-EBITDA Related Terms

Thank you for viewing the detailed overview of WPP's Debt-to-EBITDA provided by GuruFocus.com. Please click on the following links to see related term pages.


WPP (LSE:WPP) Business Description

Traded in Other Exchanges
Address
18 Upper Ground, Sea Containers, London, GBR, SE1 9GL
Headquartered in the United Kingdom, WPP is the world's largest ad holding company, based on annual revenues. WPP's services, which include traditional and digital advertising, public relations, and consulting, are provided worldwide, with over 70% of its revenue coming from more developed regions such as North America, the U.K., and Western Europe.