Lincoln International today published its quarterly EMS stock index and, as usual, there are several interesting nuggets to be gleaned. One thing that stands out is how well Celestica has been managed over the past several years. It’s the only one of the four top tier companies that is currently net positive in cash. Given that the sector historically offers little or no dividends to shareholders, that tells me Celestica is really ahead of the pack when it comes to creating a profitable business, regardless of whether this is reflected in its share price.

What also stands out is how much better overall the mid tier EMS companies have been at managing their debt loads. Four of the six mid tier companies tracked have no debt, and the other two have net debt of 2% or less of their annual revenues.