Operating Leverage vs Financial leverage (Differences)
Operating Leverage vs. Financial Leverage – Leverage is a firm’s ability to employ new assets or funds to create better returns or to reduce costs. That’s why leverage for any company is very significant.
There are two kinds of leverage – operating leverageOperating LeverageOperating Leverage is an accounting metric that helps the analyst in analyzing how a company’s operations are related to the company’s revenues. The ratio gives details about how much of a revenue increase will the company have with a specific percentage of sales increase – which puts the predictability of sales into the forefront.read more and financial leverageFinancial LeverageFinancial Leverage Ratio measures the impact of debt on the Company’s overall profitability. Moreover, high & low ratio implies high & low fixed business investment cost, respectively. read more. When we combine the two, we get a third type of leverage – combined leverage. Since both of these (operating leverage and financial leverage) are quite different in nature, and we look at different metrics to calculate them, we need to discuss it in detail to understand them better.
- Operating leverage can be defined as a firm’s ability to use fixed costs (or expenses) to generate better returns for the firm.
- Financial leverage can be defined as a firm’s ability to increase better returns and to reduce the cost of the firm by paying lesser taxes.
Operating leverage, on the one hand, compares how well a firm uses its fixed costs and financial leverage, on the other hand, looks at various capital structures and chooses the one which reduces taxes most.
In this article, we at the comparative analysis of operating leverage vs. financial leverage.
Without any ado, let’s get started with the head to head differences between operating leverage and financial leverage in an infographics
Operating Leverage vs. Financial leverage Infographics
Let’s look at the top differences between operating leverage and financial leverage below –
Operating Leverage vs. Financial leverage (Comparison Table)
| Basis for Comparison between Financial Leverage vs. Operating Leverage | Operating Leverage | Financial Leverage |
| 1. Meaning | Operating leverage can be defined as a firm’s ability to use fixed costs to generate more returns. | Financial leverage can be defined as a firm’s ability to use capital structure to earn better returns and to reduce taxes. |
| 2. What it’s all about? | It’s about the fixed costs of the firm. | It’s about the capital structure of the firm. |
| 3. Measurement | Operating leverage measures the operating risk of a business. | Financial leverage measures the financial risk of a business. |
| 4. Calculation | Operating leverage can be calculated when we divide contribution by EBIT of the firm. | Financial leverage can be calculated when we divide EBIT by EBTEBTPretax income is a company's net earnings calculated after deducting all the expenses, including cash expenses like salary expense, interest expense, and non-cash expenses like depreciation and other charges from the total revenue generated before deducting the income tax expense.read more of the firm. |
| 5. Impact | When the degree of operating leverage is higher, it depicts more operating risk for the firm and vice versa. | When the degree of financial leverageDegree Of Financial LeverageThe degree of financial leverage formula computes the change in net income caused by a change in the company's earnings before interest and taxes. It aids in determining how sensitive the company's profit is to changes in capital structure.read more is higher, it depicts more financial risk for the firm and vice versa. |
| 6. In relation with | The degree of operating leverage is usually higher than Break Even Point. | Financial leverage has a direct relationship with the liability side of the balance sheet. |
| 7. How much is it preferred? | The preference is lower. | The preference is much higher. |
Conclusion
Operating leverage and financial leverage are both critical in their own terms. And they both help businesses in generating better returns and reduce costs. So the question remains can a firm use both of these leverages? The answer is yes.
If a company can use its fixed costs well, they would be able to generate better returns just by using operating leverage. And at the same time, they can use financial leverage by changing their capital structure from total equity to 50-50, 60-40, or 70-30 equity-debt proportion. Even if changing the capital structure would prompt the company to pay interests; still, they would be able to generate a better rate of returns and would be able to reduce the amount of taxes at the same time.
That’s why using operating leverage and financial leverage is a great way to improve the rate of returns of the company and to reduce the costs during a particular period.
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