Calhoun, Ga.-based Mohawk Industries Inc. has improved earnings and increased its operating margins over the past several quarters to levels that are stronger than our previous expectations. As a result of the improved earnings, Mohawk has improved its leverage measures, including debt to EBITDA to about 1.9x as of June 30, 2016. In addition, we expect further improvement to 1.7x by year-end 2016. As a result, we are raising our corporate credit rating on the company to 'BBB+' from 'BBB'. We are also affirming our 'A-2' short-term corporate credit rating on the company and our 'A-2' short-term rating on the company's commercial paper. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that credit measures will support a modest financial risk profile, with
