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Financial Leverage Calculator

Calculate your Degree of Financial Leverage (DFL) - EBIT divided by EBIT minus interest - to see how sensitive earnings per share is to changes in EBIT.

How to Use Financial Leverage Calculator
  1. 1Enter your EBIT
  2. 2Enter your interest expense
  3. 3Click Calculate to see your Degree of Financial Leverage
Frequently Asked Questions

DFL = EBIT divided by (EBIT minus Interest). It measures how much earnings per share (EPS) moves for a given percentage change in EBIT, driven by your fixed interest obligations.

A DFL of, say, 1.5 means a 1% change in EBIT causes roughly a 1.5% change in EPS. Higher DFL means more debt/interest burden relative to EBIT, which magnifies EPS swings in both directions.

Operating Leverage (DOL) measures how sales changes flow through to EBIT, based on your fixed vs variable cost structure. This tool measures how EBIT changes flow through to EPS, based on your interest/debt burden - they capture two separate sources of risk.

The DFL figure becomes very large or negative as EBIT approaches or falls below interest expense - this reflects genuinely high financial risk in that scenario, not a calculation error.

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