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CPK, Chesapeake Utilities Corporation

Gas Utilities capital-intensive

Revenue is Regulated Energy (74%) and Unregulated Energy (29%).

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K

CPK · Chesapeake Utilities Corporation

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025

$930M

+18.1% YoY · 14% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $984M 5-yr avg $728M

Operating margin 27.3% 5-yr avg 24.6%

ROIC 6% 5-yr avg 6%

Owner-earnings margin 18% 5-yr avg 17%

Free cash flow margin −21% 5-yr avg −8%

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: A regulated utility, earning a set return on the capital it sinks into its network.
What moves the needle: Operating margin has run about 22% through the cycle, a solid margin the cost base and competition set as much as the price does. Capital spending runs about 34% of sales, well above depreciation, so the return earned on what it sinks into that plant weighs as much as the margin. Read this kind of business on rate base and the allowed return. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?: Return on capital has sat near the cost of capital (median 7%). By owner earnings: roughly 16% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. 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 →

The biggest segment, Regulated Energy, is also where the profit is made: 74% of revenue and 87% of segment operating profit.

Revenue by reportable segment, FY2025

Operating profit same segments

Regulated Energy74%$688M87% of profit
Unregulated Energy29%$272M13% of profit
Other-3%($30M)

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.

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
$499M	$450M	$490M	$480M	$488M	$570M	$681M	$671M	$787M	$930M	$984M	RevenueRevenue
$86M	$90M	$95M	$106M	$113M	$131M	$143M	$151M	$228M	$256M	$269M	Operating incomeOp. inc.
17.2%	20.0%	19.3%	22.2%	23.1%	23.0%	21.0%	22.5%	29.0%	27.5%	27.3%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$45M	$58M	$57M	$65M	$71M	$83M	$90M	$87M	$119M	$140M	$149M	Net incomeNet inc.
39%	20%	27%	24%	25%	26%	27%	24%	27%	27%	27%	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$104M	$110M	$117M	$103M	$159M	$151M	$159M	$204M	$239M	$234M	$267M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$32M	$36M	$40M	$45M	$58M	$63M	$69M	$66M	$66M	$92M	$91M	DepreciationDeprec.
$25M	$13M	$18M	($12M)	$24M	($2M)	($6M)	$43M	$47M	($7M)	$18M	Working capital & otherWC & other
$170M	$175M	$240M	$185M	$166M	$187M	$128M	$189M	$355M	$449M	$477M	CapexCapex
34.0%	39.0%	49.0%	38.5%	33.9%	32.8%	18.8%	28.1%	45.1%	48.2%	48.4%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$72M	$74M	$77M	$58M	$101M	$88M	$90M	$138M	$174M	$142M	$176M	Owner earningsOwner earn.
14.4%	16.4%	15.7%	12.0%	20.6%	15.4%	13.2%	20.6%	22.1%	15.3%	17.9%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($66M)	($65M)	($123M)	($82M)	($7M)	($36M)	$31M	$15M	($116M)	($215M)	($210M)	Free cash flowFCF
−13.2%	−14.5%	−25.1%	−17.0%	−1.4%	−6.4%	4.5%	2.2%	−14.7%	−23.1%	−21.3%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$0	$12M	$17M	$24M	$22M	$36M	$12M	$925M	$0	$0	$0	AcquisitionsAcquis.
$17M	$20M	$22M	$25M	$27M	$32M	$35M	$40M	$54M	$61M	$62M	Dividends paidDiv. paid
—	—	$706K	$721K	$23M	$16M	$5M	—	—	—	—	BuybacksBuybacks
9%	10%	8%	8%	7%	7%	7%	5%	6%	6%	6%	ROICROIC
10%	12%	11%	12%	10%	11%	11%	7%	9%	9%	9%	Return on equityROE
6%	8%	7%	7%	6%	7%	7%	4%	5%	5%	5%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$4M	$6M	$6M	$7M	$3M	$5M	$6M	$5M	$8M	$2M	$5M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$63M	$77M	$54M	$50M	$57M	$58M	$63M	$72M	$77M	$102M	$114M	ReceivablesReceiv.
$57M	$75M	$99M	$54M	$60M	$53M	$61M	$78M	$78M	$115M	$101M	Accounts payablePayables
$6M	$3M	($45M)	($5M)	($3M)	$6M	$1M	($6M)	($2M)	($14M)	$13M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$141M	$179M	$192M	$135M	$136M	$170M	$194M	$186M	$204M	$237M	$239M	Current assetsCur. assets
$334M	$413M	$528M	$423M	$329M	$376M	$369M	$386M	$419M	$530M	$554M	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
0.4×	0.4×	0.4×	0.3×	0.4×	0.5×	0.5×	0.5×	0.5×	0.4×	0.4×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$15M	$20M	$22M	$33M	$39M	$45M	$46M	$508M	$508M	$508M	$508M	GoodwillGoodwill
$1.2B	$1.4B	$1.7B	$1.8B	$1.9B	$2.1B	$2.2B	$3.3B	$3.6B	$4.0B	$4.1B	Total assetsAssets
$149M	$207M	$328M	$486M	$522M	$568M	$600M	$1.2B	$1.3B	$1.5B	$1.5B	Total debtDebt
$145M	$201M	$322M	$479M	$519M	$563M	$594M	$1.2B	$1.3B	$1.5B	$1.5B	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
8.1×	7.2×	5.9×	4.8×	5.2×	6.5×	5.9×	4.1×	3.3×	3.5×	3.7×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$446M	$486M	$518M	$562M	$697M	$774M	$833M	$1.2B	$1.4B	$1.6B	$1.7B	Shareholders’ equityEquity
0.5%	0.6%	0.6%	0.9%	1.0%	1.0%	0.9%	1.1%	1.1%	0.9%	1.0%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
											Per share
15.6M	16.4M	16.4M	16.4M	16.8M	17.6M	17.8M	18.4M	22.5M	23.5M	24.1M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$31.95	$27.45	$29.86	$29.16	$29.11	$32.32	$38.23	$36.38	$34.94	$39.59	$40.93	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$2.86	$3.55	$3.45	$3.96	$4.26	$4.73	$5.04	$4.73	$5.26	$5.97	$6.18	EPS (diluted)EPS
$4.61	$4.50	$4.70	$3.50	$6.01	$4.98	$5.05	$7.49	$7.71	$6.05	$7.32	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-4.21	$-3.98	$-7.49	$-4.97	$-0.39	$-2.07	$1.72	$0.81	$-5.14	$-9.15	$-8.73	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$1.12	$1.22	$1.34	$1.50	$1.62	$1.79	$1.98	$2.17	$2.41	$2.58	$2.59	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$10.88	$10.70	$14.64	$11.23	$9.87	$10.60	$7.21	$10.23	$15.77	$19.10	$19.82	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$28.57	$29.68	$31.57	$34.14	$41.57	$43.91	$46.77	$67.59	$61.70	$68.06	$68.67	Book value / shareBVPS

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

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+2.4%/yr	+6.3%/yr
Owner earnings / share	+3.1%/yr	+0.1%/yr
EPS	+8.5%/yr	+7.0%/yr
Dividends / share	+9.7%/yr	+9.8%/yr
Capital spending / share	+6.5%/yr	+14.1%/yr
Book value / share	+10.1%/yr	+10.4%/yr

The record, charted

FY2016–2025

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

Share count

23Mpeak FY2025

ROIC

6%low FY2023

Net debt ÷ owner earnings

10.3×peak FY2025

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

$142Mowner earningsvs.$140Mnet 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 earned $142M of owner earnings, the operating cash left after the $92M it takes just to hold its position. It put $357M more into growth; free cash flow, after that spending, was ($215M).

Reported net income$140M

Owner earnings$142M · 15% of revenue

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	$140M	$119M	$87M	$90M	$83M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$92M	+$66M	+$66M	+$69M	+$63M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$9M	+$8M	+$8M	+$6M	+$6M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$7M	+$47M	+$43M	−$6M	−$2M
Cash from operations	$234M	$239M	$204M	$159M	$151M
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume	−$92M	−$66M	−$66M	−$69M	−$63M
Owner earnings	$142M	$174M	$138M	$90M	$88M
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still	−$357M	−$290M	−$123M	−$59M	−$124M
Free cash flow	($215M)	($116M)	$15M	$31M	($36M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	15%	22%	21%	13%	15%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position (here about $92M, roughly its depreciation, the rate its assets wear out). The other $357M of its capital spending is growth it chose, not upkeep it owed; charged only with the maintenance it must do, the business earns well more than the year's free cash flow shows. 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 $134M.

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? 3.5×

Adequate

Operating income $256M ÷ interest expense $73M

What this means
Comfortable in a normal year, but below the margin of safety Graham looked for. Worth checking how stable the coverage has been across a full cycle.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $1.5B · 5.7× operating profit

Heavy net debt

Cash $2M − debt $1.5B

What this means
Netting $2M of cash and short-term investments against $1.5B of debt leaves $1.5B owed, about 5.7× a year's operating profit. 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 7%

Below average through the cycle

10-yr median, range 5%–10%; 6% latest = NOPAT $186M ÷ invested capital $3.1B

Industry peers: median 6%

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 6% 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 15%

High through the cycle

10-yr median margin, range 12%–22%; latest $142M = operating cash $234M − maintenance capex $92M

Industry peers: median 15%

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 15% of revenue this year, a 15% median across 10 years. It chose to put $357M more into growth, so free cash flow this year was ($215M) — the gap is investment, not weakness. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $9M of SBC) leaves $134M.
Are earnings backed by cash? 1.67×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $234M ÷ net income $140M

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? 46%

Returns about half

Dividends + buybacks $65M ÷ Owner Earnings $142M

What this means
Of $142M Owner Earnings, $65M (46%) went back to shareholders, $61M dividends, $5M buybacks. But the buybacks barely exceed stock issued to employees ($9M SBC), net of dilution, little was truly returned. Returning most of it is the mark of a mature business with little left to reinvest at a high return; reinvesting most could mean a long runway, or empire-building. The split doesn't say which; the return earned on it (see ROIC) does.
Investing or harvesting? 4.89×

Expanding

Capex $449M ÷ depreciation $92M

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 · 3 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 Miss

Revenue ≥ $2B · $930M

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 Miss

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 0.45×

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 · $1.5B vs ($293M) 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 Pass

Uninterrupted dividends · paid every year (10)

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 · +117%

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 $4.81/share (latest year $5.84), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $66.59/share. 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 19% → 26% (3-yr avg ends)

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about 19% early to 26% lately, median 22% — pricing power intact or improving.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC 5%

What this means
Reinvested capital came back at only a modest incremental return — near the cost of capital, where extra growth adds little per dollar. The record shows whether it is a soft stretch or a thinning moat.
Owner earnings growth +9%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 9% a year over the record.
Worst year 2016 · 17.2% op. margin

What this means
Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.
Share count +4.6%/yr

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

What this means
Paid and raised the dividend across the record, the continuity Graham prized.

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$239M

Cash & short-term investments$5M
Receivables$114M
Other current assets$121M

Current liabilities$554M

Debt due within a year$135M
Accounts payable$101M
Other current liabilities$318M

Current ratio0.43×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio0.43×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.01×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital($315M)the cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$135M due · $5M 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+18.2%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters0.4× → 0.4×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$1.1Bequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Debt incl. operating leases$1.5B$9M of it operating leases

Deferred revenue$1Mcustomer 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 $1.6B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a reinvestor, most operating cash is plowed back into the business.

Reinvested$2.2B · 142%
Dividends$333M · 21%
Buybacks$44M · 3%

Returned to owners$377M
37% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $333M as dividends and $44M as buybacks.
Source of funding−$1.0B
Reinvestment and shareholder returns ran $1.0B beyond the operating cash the business generated, so the gap was financed off the balance sheet: debt rose from $149M to $1.5B.
Average price paid for buybacks—
Buybacks ran $44M over the span, but the filings don't tag the share count needed to deduce the average price paid.
Net change in share count54.1%
The diluted count rose from 16M to 24M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
Dividend record$2.58/sh
Paid in 10 of the years on record, the per-share dividend growing about 10% a year. It was never cut over the span.
Return on what it retained18%
Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($438M over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $77M, so each retained $1 added about 0.18 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$521M13% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired

Against book equity32%goodwill is this share of book equity; the rest is the company’s own retained and paid-in capital

Cash spent acquiring$1.0Bover 10 years buying other businesses, against $2.2B of capital spent building

None written down over the record; the goodwill is still carried at full cost. That is the deals holding their value on the books so far; whether they keep doing so is the test an owner watches, since the write-down, when it comes, is the admission the price was too high.

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, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.

Fiscal year	Chief executive	Pay, as filed	“Actually paid”	Owner earnings
2021	Mr. Householder	$2.8M	$6.1M	$88M
2022	Mr. Householder	$2.8M	$1.7M	$90M
2023	Mr. Householder	$3.3M	$3.4M	$138M
2024	Mr. Householder	$4.2M	$5.3M	$174M
2025	Mr. Householder	$4.5M	$5.5M	$142M

Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.

Insider ownership1.4%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 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, 1% of revenue, equal to 3% 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 Chesapeake Utilities Corporation 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.

2 of the 5 tests turned up something to look into; the other 3 came back clean.

Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?54.1%
Diluted shares grew 54.1% over 2016–2025, even as the company spent $44M on buybacks. The repurchases were outrun by issuance — to staff, in a raise, or in a deal — and the filing says which; owners' slice still shrank. Read the buyback line beside this one, not on its own.
Look hereDid debt outgrow the business?$149M → $1.5B
Debt rose from $149M to $1.5B while owner earnings went from about $74M to $151M — about 2.0 years of owner earnings in debt then, about 9.7 now: measured against what the business earns, the balance sheet carries more debt than it did. Debt raised for buybacks or deals rather than growth is the kind that bites in a downturn.

And these came back clean

Is it less profitable than it was?
Did reported profit become cash?
Did receivables and inventory outpace sales?

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.

Peers, Gas Utilities

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
SWXSouthwest Gas Holdings	$1.9B	51%	12.6%	6%	8%
AROCArchrock	$1.5B	-25%	17.8%	6%	16%
KGSKodiak Gas Services	$1.3B	—	28.7%	6%	6%
NWNNorthwest Natural	$1.3B	—	19.1%	6%	10%
DTMDT Midstream Inc. Common Stock	$1.2B	—	51.1%	5%	59%
USACUSA Compression Partners LP Common	$998M	—	23.1%	—	18%
CWTCalifornia Water Service	$964M	—	16.5%	5%	15%
CPKChesapeake Utilities Corporation	$930M	—	22.3%	7%	16%
Group median	—	—	20.7%	6%	15%

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 Chesapeake Utilities Corporation has delivered.

Chesapeake Utilities Corporation’s latest year shows negative owner earnings, the mark of a build-out: total capital spending outruns the cash the business throws off today. So the tool opens on the steady-state base (maintenance capex in place of the build-out spend), the cash it would earn at rest; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, Chesapeake Utilities Corporation earns about $145M on its 15.6% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 15.3% margin runs in line with that. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year.

Base Normalize · through-cycle ($145M) Net of stock comp (−$10M) Steady-state · maintenance capex ($175M)

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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+15%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · ’16→’25+9%/yr

Owner-earnings yield—

P/E (3-yr earnings ’23–’25)—

P/B—

Graham’s price gate—

Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.

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.

Free cash flow ($210M) on 24M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-05-04; net debt $1.5B. The base opens on the steady-state figure (the latest year is negative on total capex mid-build-out); clear Steady-state to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. Capex ($477M) runs well above depreciation ($91M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $175M, the cash it would throw off if it stopped expanding. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Weigh CPK against another business →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Chesapeake Utilities Corporation (CPK), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/CPK, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← CPHI its page in the Manual CPNG →

Industry order: ← CLNE the Gas Utilities chapter CQP →