Siemens	2017	2016	2015	Industry Ave
Debt Ratio (Total Liabilities / Total Assets)	.64	.33	.98	.37
Equity Ratio (Total Equity / Total Assets)	32.20%	27.21%	28.65%
Times Interest Earned (EBIT / Interest Exp)	7.36	7.53	8.90

Debt ratio is the portion of the total assets that are financed by debt. The higher the ratio,means that more of the company's assets are financed by debt.

In this example, it shows that the ratio has fallen, which means that debt was higher in the initial years which has fallen in the later years.

Equity ratio is the proportion of the company assets that are financed by equity. The portion of equity has risen from the prvious years, which means more the comoany is financed more from it's internal earnings.

The Times interest earned is a good indicator of how well a company is able to pay it's interest obligations. it is higher than 2.5, which is a good indicator that the company's paying capacity is good.

Yes, the company had too much debt in 2015, and in 2016 the dependence on debt has fallen and then increased but lower in comparison to 2015 in 2017.

the company makes a greater use of debt financing. yes the company can safely pay debt because of it's quite high but it's falling.

Question related to upper answer

As you pointed out it appears the trend for Siemens is decreasing a focus on debt with an increase in equity. Were you surprised to see these numbers go in opposite directions and, what does this tell you as a financial analyst or potential investor about how the company finances operations? Given all you have researched about this large corporation what is your overall impression from a finance perspective?