1) Is it optimal for Boeing to have such a low leverage? Is it optimal for Boeing to have a high leverage? Why or why not?
Based on Boeing’s financial statements, it seems that it is not optimal for Boeing to have such a low leverage. Indeed, the leverage decision is a trade-off between the value created through the tax shield and the increase in the cost of additional debt (lower credit rating). In fact, looking at Boeing’s interest coverage ratio (profit before tax / interest expense = from 130 to 150 in 1988 and 1989) we can conclude that Boeing could handle more leverage than it is currently doing without significantly increasing the cost of its debt.
It seems that it is not optimal for Boeing to have a high leverage due to the business risk related to its industry driven by 2 combined factors:
• Cyclicality of the industry: the probability of a low performance of Boeing in a downturn may affect its ability to cover the interest payments. This will be certainly reflected in its cost of debt.
• High operating leverage of the industry, which magnifies the cyclicality effect. Indeed, the high level of fixed costs does not allow the company to easily go through downturn phases.
We are not able to deduct the impact of an increased leverage on the cost of debt, and thus the optimal leverage ratio. However, we can assume that Boeing could increase its D/E ratio within a relatilvely large region to maximize the tax shield effect without having to pay significanlty more interest on debt....