The debt-to-equity ratio (D/E) is a financial ratio indicating the relative proportion of shareholders’ equity and debt used to finance a company’s assets.Closely related to leveraging, the ratio is also known as Risk, Gearing or Leverage. The two components are often taken from the firm’s balance sheet or statement of financial position (so-called book value), but the ratio may also be calculated using market values for both, if the company’s debt and equity are publicly traded, or using a combination of book value for debt and market value for equity financially.
D/E = Debt(liabilities)/equity
eg Google has total liabilities of 14,429,000 and total equity of 58,145,000 so therefore its D/E ratio is ( 14429000/58145000) *100= 24.8%