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ARLP, Alliance Resource Partners L.P. Common

Coal & Consumable Fuels capital-intensive

We are a diversified natural resource company that generates operating and royalty income from the production and marketing of coal to major domestic utilities, industrial users and international customers, as well as royalty income from oil & gas mineral interests located in key producing regions across the United States.

Leveraging our relationships with electric utilities, industrial customers, and government partners, we intend to pursue strategic opportunities that complement our operational strengths.

We market our coal production to major domestic and international utilities and industrial customers.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K

ARLP · Alliance Resource Partners L.P. Common

The business

What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.

Revenue · FY2025

$2.2B

−10.4% YoY · 11% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $2.2B 5-yr avg $2.2B

Operating margin 14.4% 5-yr avg 20.3%

Owner-earnings margin 16% 5-yr avg 20%

Free cash flow margin 16% 5-yr avg 18%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

What moves the needle: Operating margin has run about 18% through the cycle, a solid margin the cost base and competition set as much as the price does. The operating margin has swung widely — from −6.2% to 28% over the years — so the through-cycle figure carries more than any single year, and the worst year more than the best. Capital spending runs about 12% of sales, below what it charges for depreciation, so the return earned on what it sinks into that plant weighs as much as the margin. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2016–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2016’16	2017’17	2018’18	2019’19	2020’20	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24	2025’25	TTMTTMMar 2026
											Income statement
$1.9B	$1.8B	$2.0B	$2.0B	$1.3B	$1.6B	$2.4B	$2.6B	$2.4B	$2.2B	$2.2B	RevenueRevenue
4%	3%	3%	4%	5%	4%	3%	3%	3%	4%	4%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
$368M	$332M	$372M	$259M	($83M)	$224M	$667M	$672M	$394M	$385M	$313M	Operating incomeOp. inc.
19.1%	18.5%	18.6%	13.2%	−6.2%	14.2%	27.6%	26.2%	16.1%	17.6%	14.4%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$339M	$304M	$367M	$399M	($129M)	$183M	$586M	$630M	$361M	$311M	$246M	Net incomeNet inc.
0%	0%	0%	-0%	—	0%	8%	1%	4%	6%	7%	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$704M	$556M	$694M	$515M	$401M	$432M	$802M	$824M	$803M	$651M	$611M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$337M	$269M	$280M	$309M	$313M	$265M	$277M	$268M	$285M	$299M	$313M	DepreciationDeprec.
$14M	($29M)	$35M	($206M)	$213M	($21M)	($72M)	($87M)	$146M	$32M	$43M	Working capital & otherWC & other
$91M	$145M	$233M	$306M	$121M	$123M	$286M	$379M	$429M	$263M	$272M	CapexCapex
4.7%	8.1%	11.7%	15.6%	9.1%	7.8%	11.8%	14.8%	17.5%	12.0%	12.5%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$612M	$411M	$461M	$209M	$280M	$309M	$516M	$556M	$518M	$388M	$339M	Owner earningsOwner earn.
31.7%	22.9%	23.0%	10.7%	21.0%	19.6%	21.3%	21.7%	21.1%	17.7%	15.6%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$612M	$411M	$461M	$209M	$280M	$309M	$516M	$445M	$374M	$388M	$339M	Free cash flowFCF
31.7%	22.9%	23.0%	10.7%	21.0%	19.6%	21.3%	17.3%	15.3%	17.7%	15.6%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$1M	—	—	$320M	—	—	$93M	$14M	$0	$10M	$25M	AcquisitionsAcquis.
											Balance sheet
$40M	$7M	$244M	$36M	$56M	$122M	$296M	$60M	$137M	$71M	$29M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$152M	$182M	$175M	$162M	$105M	$130M	$241M	$283M	$167M	$130M	$167M	ReceivablesReceiv.
$61M	$60M	$59M	$101M	$56M	$60M	$77M	$128M	$121M	$143M	$144M	InventoryInvent.
$64M	$97M	$96M	$81M	$48M	$70M	$95M	$108M	$98M	$82M	$95M	Accounts payablePayables
$149M	$145M	$138M	$182M	$113M	$120M	$224M	$302M	$189M	$190M	$215M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$277M	$282M	$501M	$320M	$246M	$339M	$658M	$516M	$513M	$430M	$409M	Current assetsCur. assets
$327M	$290M	$331M	$196M	$215M	$178M	$256M	$227M	$233M	$204M	$280M	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
0.8×	1.0×	1.5×	1.6×	1.1×	1.9×	2.6×	2.3×	2.2×	2.1×	1.5×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$136M	$136M	$136M	$136M	$4M	$4M	—	—	—	—	$4M	GoodwillGoodwill
$2.2B	$2.2B	$2.4B	$2.6B	$2.2B	$2.2B	$2.7B	$2.8B	$2.9B	$2.9B	$2.9B	Total assetsAssets
$549M	$488M	$656M	$781M	$593M	$435M	$422M	$337M	$473M	$451M	$496M	Total debtDebt
$510M	$482M	$412M	$745M	$537M	$313M	$126M	$277M	$336M	$380M	$467M	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
12.0×	8.4×	9.3×	5.7×	-1.8×	5.7×	17.9×	18.6×	11.2×	9.7×	7.3×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
0.7%	0.7%	0.6%	0.6%	0.3%	0.4%	0.5%	0.5%	0.4%	0.4%	0.4%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
											Per share
74.4M	98.7M	131M	128M	127M	127M	127M	127M	128M	128M	129M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$25.98	$18.20	$15.32	$15.31	$10.44	$12.42	$19.03	$20.18	$19.14	$17.10	$16.88	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$4.56	$3.08	$2.80	$3.12	$-1.02	$1.44	$4.61	$4.95	$2.82	$2.42	$1.92	EPS (diluted)EPS
$8.24	$4.16	$3.52	$1.63	$2.20	$2.43	$4.06	$4.37	$4.05	$3.02	$2.64	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$8.24	$4.16	$3.52	$1.63	$2.20	$2.43	$4.06	$3.50	$2.93	$3.02	$2.64	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$1.22	$1.47	$1.79	$2.39	$0.95	$0.97	$2.25	$2.98	$3.35	$2.05	$2.12	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	−4.5%/yr	+10.4%/yr
Owner earnings / share	−10.5%/yr	+6.6%/yr
EPS	−6.8%/yr	—
Capital spending / share	+5.9%/yr	+16.6%/yr

The year, in the company's words

the filing →

Verbatim from the 10-K's management discussion. Each sentence is shown only because its subject, direction, and stated figures check out against the filed numbers on this page. The words are the company's; the arithmetic is the record's.

Coal sales-8.5%
“Coal sales prices decreased by 7.5% as a result of lower domestic price realizations at several mines due to the continued roll-off of higher-priced contracts entered into during the energy crisis and reduced export price realizations from our MC Mining and Mettiki mines. ● Transportation revenues and expenses were $36.6 million and $112.6 million in 2025 and 2024, respectively.”
✓ figure matches the filed record

The record, charted

FY2016–2025

Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.

Share count

128Mpeak FY2018

Net debt ÷ owner earnings

1.0×peak FY2019

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

The accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.

$388Mowner earningsvs.$311Mnet incomelow FY2019

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedBeyond op. cash

Each year's outlays against its operating cash: the mix, and how it drifts. The hatched cap is spending beyond that year's operating cash — financed from the balance sheet or borrowing, not operations.

FY2016FY2025

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2021–FY2025cash-flow statement, SEC EDGAR →

Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.

In fiscal 2025 the business turned $311M of profit into $388M of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.

Reported net income$311M

Owner earnings$388M · 18% of revenue

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	$311M	$361M	$630M	$586M	$183M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$299M	+$285M	+$268M	+$277M	+$265M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$9M	+$11M	+$13M	+$11M	+$6M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	+$32M	+$146M	−$87M	−$72M	−$21M
Cash from operations	$651M	$803M	$824M	$802M	$432M
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume	−$263M	−$285M	−$268M	−$286M	−$123M
Owner earnings	$388M	$518M	$556M	$516M	$309M
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still	—	−$143M	−$111M	—	—
Free cash flow	$388M	$374M	$445M	$516M	$309M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	18%	21%	22%	21%	20%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position . The cash-flow statement also adds stock comp back as non-cash, but it is a real cost paid in shares; counted as the expense it is (less $9M), owner earnings is nearer $379M.

Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.

III

Quality & stewardship

Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2025 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 9.7×

Comfortable

Operating income $385M ÷ interest expense $40M

What this means
Operating profit covers interest with the kind of margin Graham wanted for a defensive holding. Necessary, not sufficient, it says solvent, not cheap.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $380M · 1.0× operating profit

Modest net debt

Cash $71M − debt $451M

What this means
Netting $71M of cash and short-term investments against $451M of debt leaves $380M owed, about 1.0× a year's operating profit (1.2× on the gross debt, before the cash). Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
How long is cash tied up? —

Not enough data

What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.

Is it a good business?

Return on invested capital —

Not enough data

Industry peers: median 15%

What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
Owner-earnings margin 21%

High through the cycle

10-yr median margin, range 11%–32%; latest $388M = operating cash $651M − maintenance capex $263M

Industry peers: median 14%

What this means
What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's 18% of revenue this year, a 21% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $9M of SBC) leaves $379M.
Are earnings backed by cash? 2.09×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $651M ÷ net income $311M

In the filing’s words The filing leans on adjusted, non-GAAP earnings, but the GAAP profit is itself cash-backed — the adjustments are not papering over a cash shortfall here.

What this means
How much of reported profit showed up as operating cash. Above 1× is reassuring; well below suggests earnings lean on accruals. One year is noisy, growth and working-capital swings distort it, and this is operating cash, not free cash. Watch the multi-year trend.

How is the cash used?

Where do the earnings go? —

Not enough data

What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
Investing or harvesting? 0.88×

Maintaining

Capex $263M ÷ depreciation $299M

What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.

Graham’s defensive tests · 2 of 6 met

Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.

Adequate size Pass

Revenue ≥ $2B · $2.2B

What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.
Strong liquidity Pass

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 2.10×

What this means
Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.
Conservative debt Miss

Debt ≤ working capital · $451M vs $226M WC

What this means
Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.
Earnings stability Near

A profit every year (10-yr record) · 1 loss year

What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
Dividend record Miss

Uninterrupted dividends · none paid

What this means
An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.
Earnings growth Near

Earnings +33% over the record · +29%

What this means
At least a third more earnings than a decade ago, averaging three years at each end. Net income (not per-share), so stock splits don't distort it, buybacks and dilution show up in the share-count line instead.
Moderate price —

P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price

What this means
Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $3.37/share (latest year $2.42), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.

Durability & moat, 2016–2025

Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.

Profitable years 9 of 10

What this means
Lost money in 1 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
Operating margin 19% → 20% (3-yr avg ends)

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin held roughly steady — about 19% early, 20% lately, median 18%.
Owner earnings growth −1%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings shrank about 1% a year over the record.
Worst year 2020 · −6.2% op. margin

What this means
Operations went underwater in 2020, understand why before trusting the good years.
Share count +6.3%/yr

What this means
The share count is rising, dilution works against you on a per-share basis.

Does AI threaten the moat?

Low contestability

The moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.

AI is unlikely to contest a moat that is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded; here it reads more as a cost tool than a threat.

Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Current Position

as of the latest quarter, Mar 31, 2026

Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.

Current assets$409M

Cash & short-term investments$29M
Receivables$167M
Inventory$144M
Other current assets$70M

Current liabilities$280M

Debt due within a year$70M
Accounts payable$95M
Other current liabilities$116M

Current ratio1.46×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio0.95×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.10×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$128Mthe cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$70M due · $29M cash cash alone won't cover the maturities; it leans on refinancing or operating cash · both figures from the Mar 31, 2026 balance sheet

Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago−4.5%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters2.5× → 1.5×

Deeper floors

Net current asset value($665M)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$511M$15M of it operating leases

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2016–2025

Over the record, the business generated $6.4B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a balanced allocator, splitting cash between the business, owners, and the balance sheet.

Reinvested$2.4B · 37%
Retained (debt / cash)$4.0B · 63%

Net change in share count72.9%
The diluted count rose from 74M to 129M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
Dividend record—
No dividend line was reported in the filing data over the span; the record here neither confirms nor rules out a payout.
Return on what it retained−0%
Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($3.4B over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) fell $8M, so each retained $1 gave back about 0.00 of yearly owner earnings. Buffett's test, run on owner earnings instead of market value.

Buybacks are gross of stock issued to staff; the share-count line above is the net of that, the figure that decides whether owners gained. The average price paid blends a year of purchases (and any accelerated repurchase), so it is close, not exact. The record of where the cash went and on what terms.

Acquisitions & goodwill

from the balance sheet & the 10-year cash-flow record

Goodwill grows only when a company acquires and falls only when it concedes it overpaid. The size of that bet, the cash put into buying rather than building, and how much has already been written off.

Goodwill & intangibles$5M0% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired

Against book equity—goodwill is this share of book equity; the rest is the company’s own retained and paid-in capital

Cash spent acquiring$438Mover 10 years buying other businesses, against $2.4B of capital spent building

$132M written down across 1 year (2020): goodwill the company has already conceded it overpaid for, charged against earnings. That is roughly 30% of the cash it put into acquisitions over the span. A write-down costs no cash (the cash went out when the deal was signed), but it is management marking its own past judgment to market.

Goodwill, acquired intangibles and equity from the latest balance sheet; acquisition spend and write-downs summed across the 10-year record, from the company's own filings.

Management, ownership & pay

read the proxy →

From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid.

Insider ownership16.8%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2022 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
Stock-based compensation$9M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 0% of revenue, equal to 2% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why Alliance Resource Partners L.P. Common is a good business, the question is what would make owning it a mistake, and whether those marks are in the record. Disconfirming tests across 2016–2025.

3 of the 6 tests turned up something to look into; the other 3 came back clean.

Look hereIs it less profitable than it was?20.2% vs 25.9%
The owner-earnings margin averaged 25.9% early in the record and 20.2% across the last three years, and the latest year has not recovered. Ask the filing whether that is a structural drift or a cyclical trough — price, mix, cost, or a competitor — and whether it is permanent.
Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?72.9%
Diluted shares grew 72.9% over 2016–2025. Owners were diluted on net; each share owns less of the business than it did. Read the buyback line beside this one, not on its own.
Look hereDid receivables and inventory outpace sales?11% → 14% of sales
Receivables and inventory grew from $213M to $310M while revenue grew 12%: working capital is climbing faster than sales (11% of revenue then, 14% now). That can mean customers paying slower, stock building up, or revenue pulled forward. The filing's cash-flow and receivables notes say which.

And these came back clean

Did debt outgrow the business?
Did reported profit become cash?
Are "one-time" charges a yearly habit?

Each test is read from the filings and is noisy alone; a flag can mark a cyclical trough or a year of heavy investment as easily as a problem. The filing says which.

What an owner would ask, FY2025

read the 10-K →

Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
Management names Pension & retirement, Acquisitions as critical estimates
each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →

The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.

Peers, Coal & Consumable Fuels

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.

Company	Revenue	Gross margin	Op. margin	ROIC	Owner earn. margin
CNRCore Natural Resources Inc.	$4.2B	—	4.6%	4%	14%
BTUPeabody Energy Corporation Common Stock	$3.9B	—	5.9%	17%	6%
ARLPAlliance Resource Partners L.P. Common	$2.2B	—	18.0%	—	21%
AMRAlpha Metallurgical Resources Inc.	$2.1B	—	9.6%	15%	4%
HCCWarrior Met Coal Inc.	$1.3B	46%	30.2%	35%	29%
METCRamaco Resources Inc.	$537M	21%	6.5%	14%	9%
NCNACCO Industries Inc.	$277M	13%	21.3%	12%	21%
NRPNatural Resource Partners LP	$232M	—	82.8%	—	87%
Group median	—	—	13.8%	—	17%

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what Alliance Resource Partners L.P. Common has delivered.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, Alliance Resource Partners L.P. Common earns about $466M on its 21.2% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 17.7% margin runs below that; the reported figure may understate a lean year. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year.

Base Normalize · through-cycle ($466M) Net of stock comp (−$9M)

—

The assumptions Required return 9% Years of high growth 10 Terminal growth 2.5%

9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.

Enter a price above to run it.

Implied by the price—

Owner-earnings growth · ’21→’25+2%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · ’16→’25−3%/yr

Owner-earnings yield—

Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%

Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.55%, as of Jul 15, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.

Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.

Owner earnings $339M on 129M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-05-08; net debt $467M. The base is the latest year by default; Normalize values it on the through-cycle median owner-earnings margin (to avoid paying on a peak year). Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Weigh ARLP against another business →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Alliance Resource Partners L.P. Common (ARLP), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/ARLP, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← ARLO its page in the Manual ARMK →

Industry order: ← AMR the Coal & Consumable Fuels chapter BTU →