Times Interest Earned - TIE

See: Times Interest Covered Ratio. It's the same thing, more or less. But it's an important metric, so it gets listed a few times.

A given company earns, say, $50 million in a given year. That's a given. And it has interest payable on its debt of $10 million. So...the ratio? Yes, 5x.

And think about that ratio. It means that the company is highly solvent; it's paying its interest costs easily, and likely has plenty of cash left over to pay down its principal if it wants to without breaking a sweat.