How do i quickly find a companys net debt?

adamt

Im fairly new to trading and when researching a prospective company for investement i find it very difficult to find a companys net debt.

Does anyone know a quick way to find out a companies net/total debt?

I understand in a company interim/annual reports show their debt levels but is there a way of finding out their debt level without going through resuts/reports?

I mainly use ADVFN and MoneyAM.

Also which do you assess when looking at the fundamentals: NET profit or OPERATING profit?

thanks

Lokolo

NET is after tax
OPERATING profit is after operating costs have been taken off gross profit.
GROSS profit is just price - cost

I think thats right anyway!

adamt

thanks but i understood this, i just wanted help/answer to my questions

Lokolo

Then you want to look at NET surely as thats the final profit they are making.

If operating goes up but gross stays the same then the company is having problems with costs when sales aren't rising. So theres a problem. And vice versa, its good, costs being lowered with sales the same.

And you should find the companies financial info on the corporate site of the company. Usually typing in "investor relations companyname", into google gives results

adamt

thanks Lokolo,

Just out of curiousity which site/s do you use to find the latest market news/prices/fundamentals?

I would of though sites like ADVFN and MoneyAM would display the companies debt figures

tradetime

I don't do fundamentals, but you may find what you are looking for here, assuming it is a London listed company. This shows fundamentals for Antofagasta.

adamt

that sites great thanks, much clearer than advfn and moneyam
But i dont get why they cant just label debt as 'debt', instead of liabilities , expences , etc. is there a way just to find the total debt?

If you dont me asking , what do you base your prospective investments on if you dont look at the fundamentals?
i would of thought checking the companys profit, turnover, market cap, etc are quite important?

Biggles

www.digitallook.com has the most comprehensive breakdown of fundamentals that I know of. You have to register but it's free.

tradetime

adamt wrote: »

that sites great thanks, much clearer than advfn and moneyam
But i dont get why they cant just label debt as 'debt', instead of liabilities , expences , etc. is there a way just to find the total debt?

If you dont me asking , what do you base your prospective investments on if you dont look at the fundamentals?
i would of thought checking the companys profit, turnover, market cap, etc are quite important?

You're welcome. I don't invest, I am a technical trader, mainly in index futures.

Darth_Calculus

You will NOT find net debt by looking at a company's profit and loss account. Its on the balance sheet, or cash flow statement.

Net debt has nothing to do with gross, operating or net profit (other than financing costs!). Profits are a result of trading, debt is a result of borrowing.

If net debt is not clearly stated on the balance sheet, you need to look at extracting 'cash and cash equivilents', bonds, loans, leases, etc from the face of the balance sheet or the notes therein to find a company's ned debt.

turbobob

adamt wrote: »

But i dont get why they cant just label debt as 'debt', instead of liabilities , expences , etc. is there a way just to find the total debt?

On Money AM total debt is listed in the balance sheet section of the fundamentals pages. Its the 14th line down here - http://www.moneyam.com/fundamentals/index.php?display=balancesheet&stockCode=BATS