Russell 1000 Median Net Debt to EBITDA

## What this measures

The median across non-financial Russell 1000 companies with positive EBITDA of net debt (total debt less cash and cash equivalents, latest balance sheet) divided by trailing-twelve-month EBITDA (EBIT plus depreciation and amortization).

## Why it matters

Leverage measured against earnings is how lenders size how many years of operating profit the debt represents. A rising median means the typical company carries more debt for each dollar it earns.

## How to read it

Trailing twelve months are the four latest consecutive fiscal quarters known on the date, derived from year-to-date figures (each quarter is the year-to-date figure less the previous one; the fourth quarter is the annual figure less nine months), ending at most 200 days before it. EBIT is operating income (OperatingIncomeLoss); a company that tags none uses pretax income plus interest expense. Interest is interest expense (InterestExpenseNonoperating, else InterestExpense, else InterestExpenseDebt); a company that tags none uses cash interest paid (InterestPaidNet), which some companies report instead (Charter, Meta). Total debt is the debt total a filing tags, else current debt plus long-term debt, else long-term debt including its current portion plus short-term borrowings, all from one filing and one balance-sheet date; a debt total below half the company's scheduled principal is treated as a partial line and left out. Negative values are companies with more cash than debt. Each quarterly reading is dated at a calendar quarter end and uses only facts filed with the SEC on or before that date, as the company first reported them; a later restatement never changes an earlier reading. So a reading mostly reflects balance sheets from the quarter before its date.

## What it does not say

Companies with zero or negative EBITDA are left out (their ratio has no meaning), which flatters the median in downturns. Leases are not debt here. Financial companies are left out: SEC SIC codes 6000 to 6799 from each company's EDGAR submissions file, except real estate and REITs (6500 to 6553 and 6798), which GICS puts in Real Estate. Bank and insurer debt is how they fund their business, and their interest expense is a cost of sales. A reading is published only when at least half of the non-financial members have the inputs on that date; each reading's metadata carries the number of companies in it. Population: Russell 1000 members on each date from Palanor's dated index membership. Membership is dated from 26 September 2026; earlier readings use that day's constituents carried back, so they carry survivorship bias: companies that left the index, were acquired or failed are not in them.

## Source

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR XBRL financial data (companyfacts API, data.sec.gov) from each company's 10-K and 10-Q filings; calculated by Palanor. SEC filings are public information: "Information presented on sec.gov is considered public information and may be copied or further distributed by users of the web site without the SEC's permission" (sec.gov/privacy).