what counts as a good debt to equity d e ratio will depend on the nature of the business and its industry generally speaking a d e ratio below 1 would be seen as relatively safe whereas values of 2 or higher might be considered risky companies in some industries such as utilities consumer staples and banking typically have relatively high d e ratios 
note that a particularly low d e ratio may be a negative suggesting that the company is not taking advantage of debt financing and its tax advantages business interest expense is usually tax deductible while dividend payments are subject to corporate and personal income tax 