Financial Leverage

In accounting and finance, the amount of long lasting debt that an organization has in relation to its equity the longer the ratio, the larger the leverage. Leverage is generally calculated by a difference of the debt-to-equity ratio, which is calculated as follows:

A company's optimal leverage depends on the stability of its earnings.  A company with consistently high earnings can be more leveraged than an organization with variable earnings, because it will consistently be more likely to make the needs interest and principal payments.