Managers play a vital role in managing debt versus equity financing management in maximizing firm profitability. However, the problem is how managers manage debt versus equity to increase firm profitability. Debt use has both leverage and bankruptcy risks, but effective managers are able to manage debt well to increase profitability. During times of economic downturns and/ or market volatility, many highly leveraged firms opt for bankruptcy or mergers and acquisition based- restructuring. The study employed multiple regression and co-integration analysis to examine the relationship between independent variables, asset turnover ratio, inventory turnover, profit per employee, and debt and equity financing and a dependent variable, firm profitability. The study used 15 years of data, from 2003-2017 on 50 randomly selected firms listed on New York Stock Exchange.