Cash, debt and leverage
At the end of Q2 2026, the 497 covered companies that reported the quarter held $1.28T in cash and equivalents against $4.27T of long-term debt, net debt of $2.99T, or 1.02 times their trailing operating income before depreciation and amortization (1.34 a year earlier). 17% of them held more cash than long-term debt.
Calendar quarters since 2009, balance sheets as of each fiscal quarter end. Q2 2026 is the latest complete quarter; Q3 2026 is still being reported, 234 companies so far, and is drawn hollow. Long-term debt is the balance-sheet line as mapped; a company that reports it only in its 10-K carries that figure through the year, several energy filers show none, and banks’ deposits and borrowings sit elsewhere, so the Financial sector’s leverage reads low. S&P 500 (SPY) runs in grey on the right-hand axis of every chart.
The market
Cash and long-term debt · trillions of dollars, all companies
Sums over the companies carrying both lines, complete quarters only. The number of reporting companies grows through the early years, so the levels rise partly with coverage; the ratios below do not.
Net debt to EBITDA · long-term debt less cash, over trailing operating income plus depreciation and amortization
Years of net debt it would take trailing EBITDA to repay. A reading near one is light; above three is where lenders start to pay attention.
Debt to equity · long-term debt over stockholders' equity
Over companies with positive equity. Buybacks shrink equity, so a falling share count raises this ratio without a dollar of new borrowing.
Share of companies with net cash · more cash and equivalents than long-term debt, percent
By sector
Each sector read as one company at the end of Q2 2026.
| Sector | Companies | Cash | Long-term debt | Net debt | Net debt to EBITDA | A year earlier | Median since 2009 | Debt to equity | With net cash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All companies | 497 | $1.28T | $4.27T | $2.99T | 1.02 | 1.34 | 1.42 | 0.57 | 17% |
| Basic Materials | 25 | $30.4B | $102.8B | $72.4B | 1.11 | 1.14 | 1.21 | 0.46 | 6% |
| Communication Services | 14 | $106.7B | $419.3B | $312.6B | 1.32 | 1.09 | 1.67 | 0.37 | 13% |
| Consumer Cyclical | 50 | $177.1B | $393.8B | $216.7B | 0.55 | 0.36 | 0.86 | 0.33 | 39% |
| Consumer Defensive | 28 | $30.6B | $173.6B | $143.1B | 1.11 | 1.14 | 1.15 | 0.78 | 0% |
| Energy | 27 | $25.9B | $157.7B | $131.8B | 1.31 | 1.74 | 2.24 | 0.40 | 6% |
| Financial | 73 | $281.6B | $631.9B | $350.3B | 2.98 | 0.57 | 0.70 | 1.21 | 23% |
| Healthcare | 59 | $168.5B | $673.0B | $504.5B | 1.65 | 1.69 | 1.45 | 0.80 | 18% |
| Industrials | 83 | $116.2B | $494.8B | $378.5B | 1.82 | 2.36 | 1.91 | 0.91 | 10% |
| Real Estate | 18 | $10.4B | $172.8B | $162.4B | 4.53 | 4.69 | 4.66 | 0.86 | 7% |
| Technology | 103 | $318.9B | $681.7B | $362.7B | 0.25 | 0.41 | 0.41 | 0.34 | 25% |
| Utilities | 17 | $11.4B | $367.3B | $355.8B | 4.27 | 4.74 | 4.54 | 1.75 | 0% |
Method
- Aggregates
- the covered companies read as one company: sums of market value, earnings, revenue, equity and cash flow over the companies carrying both lines of a ratio, so a loss-maker lowers the market's P/E as it would in an index; a ratio with a non-positive denominator is withheld, so a sector's P/E has no reading while its trailing earnings are a loss in sum (the earnings yield, earnings over value, is shown negative instead).
- Quarters
- fiscal quarters are assigned to calendar quarters by their midpoint; a quarter is complete once at least 90% of the prior quarter's reporters have filed it.
- Trailing twelve months
- four consecutive fiscal quarters (ends spanning 240 to 300 days) each carrying the line, else withheld.
- Leverage
- long-term debt less cash and equivalents, over trailing operating income plus depreciation and amortization; a company reporting long-term debt only in its 10-K carries that figure through the following three quarters.
- Survivorship
- the companies are today's, so the early years are the history of the firms that survived to be covered now, and the first weeks are dropped until coverage reaches half its peak.
- Market line
- S&P 500 (SPY) daily closes on the right-hand axis of every market chart, and each sector's own sector fund (XLB, XLC, XLY, XLP, XLE, XLF, XLV, XLI, XLRE, XLK, XLU), and an industry group its own (SMH), on its charts, from the market data mirror, so a reading can be seen against what the index or the sector was doing; a fund's line starts when it was listed.
531 companies, 458 with a trailing P/E at the latest close. Income statements, balance sheets and cash flows from each company's SEC 10-K and 10-Q filings (this site's extract); split-adjusted daily closes from a market data vendor. Every figure is computed from the filings; nothing here is a forecast or a recommendation.