Net cash per share

Net cash per share takes a company's net cash position, its cash and short term investments minus total debt, and divides it by diluted shares outstanding, showing how much cash cushion each individual share represents.

The formula is:

It's most useful compared against the share price itself. If net cash per share makes up a meaningful chunk of the stock price, part of what an investor is paying for is just cash sitting on the balance sheet rather than the operating business. A company with negative net cash per share carries net debt instead, meaning its debt outweighs its cash. It may still hold a sizable cash balance to draw on in a downturn, but that cash is more than offset by what it owes lenders, so the shares carry no net cash cushion.