Owner Scorecard
An independent research publication · data as of July 9, 2026

← All companies ← CHSCO Manual CHTR → ← CHSCO Agricultural Products DAR →

CHSCP, CHS Inc.

Agricultural Products diversified

We are the nation's largest cooperative energy company based on revenues and identifiable assets, with operations that include petroleum refining and pipelines; supply, marketing and distribution of refined fuels; blending, sale and distribution of lubricants; and wholesale supply of propane and other natural gas liquids.

We buy commodities from and provide products and services to individual agricultural producers, local cooperatives and other companies (including our members and other nonmember customers), both domestically and internationally.

We provide a wide variety of products and services, ranging from initial agricultural inputs such as fuels, farm supplies, crop nutrients and crop protection products to agricultural outputs that include grain and oilseed, processed grain and oilseed, renewable fuels and food products.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K
CHSCP · CHS Inc.
I

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025
$35.5B
−9.7% YoY · 5% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $37.0B 5-yr avg $41.3B
Gross margin 2% 5-yr avg 4%
Operating margin 0.1% 5-yr avg 1.5%
ROIC 0% 5-yr avg 6%
Owner-earnings margin 3% 5-yr avg 2%
Free cash flow margin 3% 5-yr avg 2%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

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

What it is
Revenue is Ag (78%) and Energy (22%).
What moves the needle
Gross margin has run about 3.3% and operating margin about 1.0% through the cycle, a thin spread that turns the result on volume and the cost of what it sells far more than on the price it sets. On a spread this thin the operating result swings hard on small moves in cost or volume — it has ranged from −0.5% to 2.9% over the years, so the cost line is where the needle moves. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?
Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median 4%, above 15% in 0 of 10 years). Owner earnings, the cash-based check, have been thin too. This is price-taker territory, where the balance sheet and the cycle matter more than any multiple; the rest is in the 10-K.

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

Where the money comes from

read the 10-K →

Ag is 78% of revenue, with Energy the other meaningful segment at 22%.

Revenue by reportable segment, FY2025
  • Ag78%$27.7B
  • Energy22%$7.6B
  • Corporate and Other0%$79M
By geographyNorth America96%EMEA2%Asia Pacific1%South America1%

From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.

II

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2016–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left
2016’162017’172018’182019’192020’202021’212022’222023’232024’242025’25TTMTTMMay 2026
Income statement
$30.4B$32.0B$32.7B$31.9B$28.4B$38.4B$47.8B$45.6B$39.3B$35.5B$37.0BRevenueRevenue
3%3%3%4%3%2%4%5%4%3%2%Gross marginGross mgn
2%2%2%2%2%2%2%2%3%3%3%SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
$292M($174M)$452M$660M$277M$206M$1.1B$1.3B$584M$91M$42MOperating incomeOp. inc.
1.0%−0.5%1.4%2.1%1.0%0.5%2.4%2.9%1.5%0.3%0.1%Operating marginOp. mgn
$383M$72M$776M$830M$422M$554M$1.7B$1.9B$1.1B$598M$577MNet incomeNet inc.
5%——-2%-10%-7%7%5%-0%3%-1%Effective tax rateTax rate
Cash flow & returns
$1.3B$955M$1.1B$1.1B$1.1B$758M$1.9B$3.3B$1.3B$636M$1.5BOperating cash flowOp. cash
$447M$480M$478M$473M$477M$462M$462M$540M$570M$651M$698MDepreciationDeprec.
$430M$403M($179M)($163M)$187M($258M)($194M)$844M($399M)($614M)$197MWorking capital & otherWC & other
$693M$444M$355M$443M$418M$318M$354M$565M$809M$729M$539MCapexCapex
2.3%1.4%1.1%1.4%1.5%0.8%0.7%1.2%2.1%2.1%1.5%Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$813M$510M$719M$697M$669M$440M$1.6B$2.7B$703M($93M)$933MOwner earningsOwner earn.
2.7%1.6%2.2%2.2%2.4%1.1%3.3%6.0%1.8%−0.3%2.5%Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$568M$510M$719M$697M$669M$440M$1.6B$2.7B$464M($93M)$933MFree cash flowFCF
1.9%1.6%2.2%2.2%2.4%1.1%3.3%6.0%1.2%−0.3%2.5%Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$12M$0$0$119M$0$0—$0$0$237M$573KAcquisitionsAcquis.
3%-1%5%6%3%2%10%12%5%1%0%ROICROIC
5%1%10%10%5%6%18%18%10%5%5%Return on equityROE
5%1%10%10%5%6%18%18%10%5%5%Retained to equityRetained/eq
Balance sheet
$290M$181M$451M$211M$141M$413M$794M$1.8B$1.3B$328M$498MCash & investmentsCash+inv
$3.1B$3.7B$2.8B$2.9B$2.7B$3.3B$3.7B$3.2B$3.1B$3.3B$3.6BInventoryInvent.
$2.6B$1.9B$1.8B$1.9B$1.7B$2.6B$3.1B$2.9B$2.7B$2.7B$3.1BAccounts payablePayables
$570M$1.8B$924M$923M$1.0B$719M$590M$285M$370M$553M$3.9BOperating working capitalOper. WC
$7.9B$8.2B$6.7B$6.7B$6.3B$8.0B$9.4B$9.1B$8.7B$8.1B$9.9BCurrent assetsCur. assets
$7.7B$7.8B$5.9B$5.6B$4.9B$6.3B$7.0B$5.9B$5.4B$5.3B$6.8BCurrent liabilitiesCur. liab.
1.0×1.1×1.1×1.2×1.3×1.3×1.3×1.5×1.6×1.5×1.5×Current ratioCurr. ratio
$144M$138M$138M$172M$172M$172M$180M$180M$180M$239M$239MGoodwillGoodwill
$18.3B$18.5B$16.4B$16.4B$16.0B$17.6B$18.8B$19.0B$18.7B$18.9B$20.8BTotal assetsAssets
$2.3B$2.2B$1.9B$1.8B$1.8B$1.6B$2.0B$1.8B$2.2B$1.8B$2.1BTotal debtDebt
$2.0B$2.0B$1.5B$1.6B$1.7B$1.2B$1.2B$62M$866M$1.5B$1.6BNet debt / (cash)Net debt
2.6×-1.0×3.0×3.9×2.4×2.0×9.9×9.8×5.6×0.6×0.3×Interest coverageInt. cov.
$7.8B$7.8B$8.2B$8.6B$8.8B$9.0B$9.5B$10.4B$10.8B$11.1B$11.2BShareholders’ equityEquity
—$6M—$27M——————$27MGoodwill written downGW imp.

The record, charted

FY2016–2025

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

ROIC
1%low FY2017
Gross margin
3%low FY2021
Net debt ÷ owner earnings
1.2×peak FY2017

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

($93M)owner earningsvs.$598Mnet incomelow FY2025

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 reported $598M of profit but ($93M) of owner earnings: $691M less than the profit line, taken out by capital spending and the timing of cash.

FY2025FY2024FY2023FY2022FY2021
Reported net income$598M$1.1B$1.9B$1.7B$554M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back+$651M+$570M+$540M+$462M+$462M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items−$614M−$399M+$844M−$194M−$258M
Cash from operations$636M$1.3B$3.3B$1.9B$758M
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume−$729M−$570M−$565M−$354M−$318M
Owner earnings($93M)$703M$2.7B$1.6B$440M
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still—−$239M———
Free cash flow($93M)$464M$2.7B$1.6B$440M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue0%2%6%3%1%

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 .

Much of fiscal 2025's profit didn't arrive as operating cash; it sits in “working capital & other” above. That can be a real inventory or timing swing, or profit that doesn't run through operating cash at all: a heavy tax year, equity-method earnings, or investment income booked through investing. For a year like this, owner earnings understates the cash earned; the full cash-flow statement carries the rest.

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? 0.6×
    Does not cover its interest
    Operating income $91M ÷ interest expense $146M
    What this means

    A full year of operating profit didn't cover the interest bill. This is the zombie zone: the business depends on refinancing, asset sales, or forbearance to service its debt.

  • How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $1.7B · 18.3× operating profit
    Heavy net debt
    Cash $328M − debt $2.0B
    What this means

    Netting $328M of cash and short-term investments against $2.0B of debt leaves $1.7B owed, about 18.3× a year's operating profit (21.9× 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 3%
    Below average through the cycle
    10-yr median, range -1%–12%; 1% latest = NOPAT $88M ÷ invested capital $12.7B
    Industry peers: median 8%
    What this means

    The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 10 years (it ran 1% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.

  • Owner-earnings margin 2%
    Thin through the cycle
    10-yr median margin, range -0%–6%; latest ($93M) = operating cash $636M − maintenance capex $729M
    Industry peers: median 2%
    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 -0% of revenue this year, a 2% median across 10 years.

  • Are earnings backed by cash? 1.06×
    Cash-backed
    Cash from ops $636M ÷ net income $598M
    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? 1.12×
    Maintaining
    Capex $729M ÷ depreciation $651M
    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 · 4 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 · $35.5B
    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 Near
    Current ratio ≥ 2× · 1.53×
    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 Pass
    Debt ≤ working capital · $2.0B vs $2.8B 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 Pass
    A profit every year (10-yr record) · no losses
    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 Pass
    Earnings +33% over the record · +193%
    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. . 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 10 of 10
    What this means

    Never lost money over the record, the earnings stability Graham insisted on.

  • Return on capital ≥ 15% 0 of 10 yrs
    What this means

    A moat shows up as a high return on invested capital that holds year after year, not one good vintage.

  • Operating margin 1% → 2% (3-yr avg ends)
    What this means

    Through the cycle the operating margin held roughly steady — about 1% early, 2% lately, median 1%.

  • Reinvestment, incremental ROIC returns capital
    What this means

    The capital base barely grew: this business returns cash through dividends and buybacks rather than reinvesting. Judge it on the cash returned, not on compounding.

  • Owner earnings growth −8%/yr
    What this means

    Owner earnings shrank about 8% a year over the record.

  • Worst year 2017 · −0.5% op. margin
    What this means

    Operations went underwater in 2017, understand why before trusting the good years.

  • How management talks about it Owner’s terms
    What this means

    Returns have thinned, but the filing discusses it in an owner’s vocabulary rather than selling past it — candor about a hard stretch counts for more than an adjective.

Does AI threaten the moat?

Moderate contestability

AI is likely to reshape costs and some products here without clearly contesting or sparing the core moat; how the company itself frames it is the tell.

In its own filing A competitive risk, new this year

Its FY2025 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat, in language that was not in the prior year's filing.

“As AI becomes more integrated into our operations, the risks of system failure or malfunction increase, potentially disrupting our business processes.”

The question is whether a moat the record shows as durable outlasts a technology that lowers the cost of part of what the firm sells. The durability is read in the record above, the filing's own framing of AI beside it; the industry label decides nothing on its own.

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, May 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$9.9B
  • Cash & short-term investments$498M
  • Receivables$3.3B
  • Inventory$3.6B
  • Other current assets$2.5B
Current liabilities$6.8B
  • Debt due within a year$90M
  • Accounts payable$3.1B
  • Other current liabilities$3.6B
Current ratio1.47×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio0.94×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.07×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital$3.2Bthe cushion left after near-term bills
Debt due this year vs. cash$90M due · $498M cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the May 31, 2026 balance sheet
Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+18.6%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters1.6× → 1.5×
Deeper floors
Tangible book value$10.9Bequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Debt incl. operating leases$2.1B$266M of it operating leases
Deferred revenue$286Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2016–2025

Over the record, the business generated $13.4B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a balanced allocator, splitting cash between the business, owners, and the balance sheet.

  • Reinvested$5.1B · 38%
  • Retained (debt / cash)$8.3B · 62%
  • Net change in share count—

    No continuous share count across the span.

  • 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 retained5%

    Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($8.3B over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $429M, so each retained $1 added about 0.05 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.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why CHS Inc. 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.

None of the 5 tests turned up a mark; each came back clean. A clean panel says only that these particular ways of being wrong are not written into the record.

Each test came back clean
  • Is it less profitable than it was?
  • Did debt outgrow the business?
  • Did reported profit become cash?
  • Did receivables and inventory outpace sales?
  • 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, Income taxes, Inventory 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, Agricultural Products

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.

CompanyRevenueGross marginOp. marginROICOwner earn. margin
CAHCardinal Health Inc.$222.6B4%0.5%14%1%
SYYSysco Corporation$81.4B19%3.8%16%3%
PFGCPerformance Food$63.3B12%1.3%6%1%
USFDUS Foods$39.4B17%2.7%8%2%
WKCWorld Kinect$36.9B3%0.5%6%0%
CHSCPCHS Inc.$35.5B3%1.2%4%2%
DPZDomino's Pizza Inc.$4.9B39%18.0%91%12%
UVVUniversal Corporation$2.9B18%7.6%8%3%
Group median—15%2.0%8%2%
IV

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 CHS Inc. has delivered.

$
million The share count isn’t tagged in a form this tool can read; enter it too (any quote page lists it). The rest is from the record.

Through the cycle, CHS Inc. earns about $777M on its 2.2% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s −0.3% 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

—

The assumptions

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→’25−26%/yr
Owner-earnings growth · ’16→’25−11%/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 $933M on the share count you enter above; net debt $1.6B. 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 CHSCP against another business →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "CHS Inc. (CHSCP), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/CHSCP, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← CHSCO its page in the Manual CHTR →

Industry order: ← CHSCO the Agricultural Products chapter DAR →