The debt/equity ratio shows how much a company has borrowed for every dollar its shareholders have put in. It is long-term debt, both the part due within a year and the rest, divided by shareholder equity, shown as a multiple with both amounts in the table. A higher ratio means the company relies more on borrowed money than on shareholder capital. Because equity shrinks through buybacks or losses, the ratio can rise even when debt is unchanged, and it has no meaning when equity is negative. Quarterly points use quarter-end balances; annual points use fiscal-year-end balances.
THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC INC. debt/equity ratio for fiscal 2018 was 0.71.