For Immediate ReleaseChicago, IL – November 25, 2019 - Stocks in this week’s article are Manulife Financial MFC, Gibraltar Industries ROCK, Omnicell OMCL, SolarEdge Technologies SEDG and Career Education Corp. CECO.Buy These 5 Low-Leverage Stocks to Keep Your Portfolio SafeLeverage is a well-known business strategy to use borrowed funds for financing the purchase of inventory, equipment and other company assets. These funds can also be utilized to repay the company’s prior debt. Companies can obtain such funds either using debt or equity.Historically, debt financing has been preferred over equity. This is because when a company resorts to debt financing, it incurs fixed expenses in the form of interest payments for a specific time period. However, in case of equity financing, a shareholder not only becomes a company’s partial owner but also gets entitled to a direct claim to its future profits.Yet, debt financing has its share of drawbacks. Particularly, one should keep in mind that debt financing is a feasible option as long as the companies succeed in generating a higher rate of return compared to the interest rate. Exorbitant debt financing might even cause a corporation’s bankruptcy in a worst-case scenario.A high degree of financial leverage means heavy interest payments, which affect a company's bottom line.Therefore, to protect one’s portfolio from notable losses, the real challenge for an investor is to ascertain if an organization’s debt level is sustainable.A debt-free entity is rare to find. Historically, several leverage ratios are developed to measure the amount of debt a company bears and the debt-to-equity ratio is one of the most common ratios.Analyzing Debt/EquityDebt-to-Equity Ratio = Total Liabilities/Shareholders’ EquityThis metric is a liquidity ratio that indicates the amount of financial risk a company bears. A company with a lower debt-to-equity ratio shows improved solvency for a company.With the Q3 reporting cycle over for majority of sectors, an investor must be looking for solid growth stocks. However, blindly investing in stocks displaying solid earnings growth, without considering their debt level, might not be a wise move. As uncertainty can hit the global equity market any time, it is reasonable to expect that investors will be more attracted to companies with low leverage than high earnings growth.For the rest of this Screen of the Week article please visit Zacks.com at: https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/632502/buy-these-5-low-leverage-stocks-to-keep-your-portfolio-safeDisclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material.About Screen of the WeekZacks.com created the first and best screening system on the web earning the distinction as the "#1 site for screening stocks" by Money Magazine. But powerful screening tools is just the start. That is why Zacks created the Screen of the Week to highlight profitable stock picking strategies that investors can actively use.Strong Stocks that Should Be in the NewsMany are little publicized and fly under the Wall Street radar. They're virtually unknown to the general public. Yet today's 220 Zacks Rank #1 "Strong Buys" were generated by the stock-picking system that has more than doubled the market from 1988 through 2016. Its average gain has been a stellar +25% per year. 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Zacks is providing information on this resource to you subject to the Zacks "Terms and Conditions of Service" disclaimer. www.zacks.com/disclaimer.Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Omnicell, Inc. (OMCL): Free Stock Analysis Report Manulife Financial Corp (MFC): Free Stock Analysis Report Career Education Corporation (CECO): Free Stock Analysis Report Gibraltar Industries, Inc. (ROCK): Free Stock Analysis Report SolarEdge Technologies, Inc. (SEDG): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here.