By Justin Lahart

Feb. 28, 2016 1:46 p.m. ET

Low rates alone aren’t enough to make it easy to pay off a loan. Many companies may find that out the hard way, especially as high-yield debt markets show signs of strain lately.

U.S. companies went on a borrowing binge in recent years. Nonfinancial corporations owed $8 trillion in debt in last year’s third quarter, according to the Federal Reserve, up from $6.6 trillion three years earlier. As a share of gross value added—a proxy for companies’ combined output—corporate debt is approaching levels hit in the financial crisis’s aftermath.

Most of the debt increase came from bond issuance, as nonfinancial companies took advantage of the lowest rates on corporate bonds since the mid-1960s. That is a plus as companies in many cases extended the maturity of their debt and lowered borrowing costs.

The negative: Rather than investing the funds they raised back into their businesses, companies in many cases bought back stock instead. That was something that many investors welcomed, but it may have come with future costs that they didn’t fully appreciate.

In aggregate, nonfinancial companies’ cash flows over the past three years were enough to cover capital spending. That is unusual—typically, capital spending outstrips cash flows as companies invest for growth—and is reflective of how muted business investment has been since the financial crisis. Over the same period, the companies repurchased $1.3 trillion in shares.

Because those stock buybacks helped reduce companies’ total shares outstanding, earnings per share got a boost. Indeed, absent the past three years’ share-count reductions, S&P 500 earnings per share would have been 2% lower in the fourth quarter than what companies are reporting, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

The major reason companies plowed money into buybacks rather than capital spending was that, in a low-growth environment, the returns from investing in expansion didn’t seem as attractive as in the past. This is a big part of why companies were able to borrow cheaply: In a low-growth, low-inflation environment, investors were willing to accept lower returns on corporate bonds than if the economy was moving at a more rapid clip.

The sticking point is that in a low-growth environment, paying down debt also may be harder. Especially because companies weren’t putting the money they borrowed into capital investments, which provide cash flows to help service debt. The stock they bought back won’t do that for them.

Even if this doesn’t present an immediate problem for all companies given how they refinanced debt to longer maturities, it could be a long-term drag on earnings.

Of course, if necessary, companies could issue new equity to help meet debt payments. But existing investors would get diluted.

In many cases, companies have large cash reserves they could tap. This, too, has drawbacks. One is that, in cases where the cash is overseas, it might be subject to taxation before it could be used. Another is that companies’ cash holdings are reflected in their shares. If their cash is diminished, so is their share price.

Investors who cheered as companies bought stock with borrowed money could end up blanching when they see the bill.

Write to Justin Lahart at justin.lahart@wsj.com