Key Points
Nov 8 (Reuters) - Rising borrowing costs made a slight dent in U.S. companies' ability to make interest payments on their debt in the third quarter despite a boost in earnings, according to BofA Global Research...
High-grade corporate borrowers' average interest coverage ratio - how many times over a company's income covers their interest payments - fell to 10.71x last quarter from 11.24x in the second quarter, the Tuesday report's authors found based on preliminary data for 75% of companies in BofA's sample that tracks public debt issuers...
This has led to slightly improved leverage on companies' balance sheets, as higher-rated borrowers used their earnings to pay down some of their outstanding debt and ease pressure on refinancing costs...
