Warren Buffett famously said, 'Volatility is far from synonymous with risk.' It's only natural to consider a company's balance sheet when you examine how risky it is, since debt is often involved when a business collapses. As with many other companies DEEPNOID Inc. (KOSDAQ:315640) makes use of debt. But the more important question is: how much risk is that debt creating?
Debt assists a business until the business has trouble paying it off, either with new capital or with free cash flow. If things get really bad, the lenders can take control of the business. However, a more common (but still painful) scenario is that it has to raise new equity capital at a low price, thus permanently diluting shareholders. By replacing dilution, though, debt can be an extremely good tool for businesses that need capital to invest in growth at high rates of return. The first thing to do when considering how much debt a business uses is to look at its cash and debt together.
You can click the graphic below for the historical numbers, but it shows that DEEPNOID had ₩6.66b of debt in September 2025, down from ₩7.62b, one year before. However, it does have ₩7.75b in cash offsetting this, leading to net cash of ₩1.09b.
The latest balance sheet data shows that DEEPNOID had liabilities of ₩2.10b due within a year, and liabilities of ₩9.56b falling due after that. Offsetting this, it had ₩7.75b in cash and ₩981.8m in receivables that were due within 12 months. So its liabilities total ₩2.92b more than the combination of its cash and short-term receivables.
Since publicly traded DEEPNOID shares are worth a total of ₩94.7b, it seems unlikely that this level of liabilities would be a major threat. However, we do think it is worth keeping an eye on its balance sheet strength, as it may change over time. While it does have liabilities worth noting, DEEPNOID also has more cash than debt, so we're pretty confident it can manage its debt safely. The balance sheet is clearly the area to focus on when you are analysing debt. But ultimately the future profitability of the business will decide if DEEPNOID can strengthen its balance sheet over time. So if you want to see what the professionals think, you might find this free report on analyst profit forecasts to be interesting.
Check out our latest analysis for DEEPNOID
In the last year DEEPNOID's revenue was pretty flat, and it made a negative EBIT. While that hardly impresses, its not too bad either.
We have no doubt that loss making companies are, in general, riskier than profitable ones. And we do note that DEEPNOID had an earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) loss, over the last year. Indeed, in that time it burnt through ₩9.7b of cash and made a loss of ₩9.1b. With only ₩1.09b on the balance sheet, it would appear that its going to need to raise capital again soon. Overall, we'd say the stock is a bit risky, and we're usually very cautious until we see positive free cash flow. When analysing debt levels, the balance sheet is the obvious place to start. However, not all investment risk resides within the balance sheet - far from it. Be aware that DEEPNOID is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those doesn't sit too well with us...
At the end of the day, it's often better to focus on companies that are free from net debt. You can access our special list of such companies (all with a track record of profit growth). It's free.
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.