34
2.7.2 The Degree of Financial Leverage
Emery and Finnerty (2004, p320), “Operating risk depends principally on the
nature of the investment and to a lesser extend on the firm’s choice of operating
leverage. In contrast, financial risk depends mostly on financial leverage. When a
firm
has
some
debt
financing,
the
debt
portion
of
its
financing
co st
is
fixed
rather
than variable. Although we would expect a larger return to shareholders than to
debtholders, shareholder return can vary from one period to the next without
affecting the operation of the firm. However, failure to make required debt paym ents
can result in bankruptcy. We could say, then, that financial leverage substitutes fixed
payments to debtholders for variable payments to shareholders.”
Scott,
Martin,
Petty,
and
Keown
(2005,
p524),
“Financial
leverage
as
the
practice of financing a portion of the firm’s assets with securities bearing a fixed rate
of return in hope of increasing the ultimate return to the common shareholders.”
Financial
leverage
dapat
difokuskan
pada
hubungan
perubahan
antara earning per
share
dengan EBIT perusahaan. Tingkat
pengembalian
dari
common stockholder
dapat dipusatkan pada earning per share,
tetapi earning per share
juga bukan
merupakan
kriteria
yang
tepat
untuk
semua
keputusan
keuangan.
Penggunaan
financial leverage
dapat
menghasilkan
pengaruh
pada
keputusan-keputusan tertentu
saja.
Untuk
mengukur
hubungan
antara
earnings
per
share dengan
naik
turunnya
EBIT, dapat dilihat dari persamaan:
change
in
EPS
DFL
% change
in
EPS
EPS
% change
in
EBIT
change
in
EBIT
EBIT
 |