Citing rapidly increasing leverage at the Saucony and Merrell parent, S&P Global revised its outlook on the company to negative, but maintained its BB issuer-credit rating. WWW ended the first quarter with leverage of 5.2x, attributed to last year’s Sweaty Betty acquisition, a $30 million legal settlement over the PFAS contamination at a former leather tannery site in Michigan, and $40 million in share buybacks. That level already exceeds the 4.0x threshold justifying a downgrade, but S&P said ... Log in to view full article.