Situation: Regulated utility. Returns are set by regulation on an approved rate base; the capital spending regulators approve becomes the growth, recovered through allowed rates.
What moves the needle: Gross margin has run about 47% and operating margin about 30% through the cycle, a solid spread between what it charges and what the product costs to make. The operating margin has swung widely — from 20% to 52% over the years — so the through-cycle figure carries more than any single year, and the worst year more than the best. Read this kind of business on rate base and the allowed return. 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
$1.1B	$4.3B	$6.4B	$6.8B	$6.2B	$9.4B	$17.2B	$9.7B	$8.7B	$10.8B	$11.4B	RevenueRevenue
63%	46%	47%	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	68%	Gross marginGross mgn
1%	0%	0%	0%	0%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	—	—	—	—	0%	R&D / revenueR&D/rev
$250M	$1.2B	$2.0B	$2.0B	$2.1B	$2.6B	$3.4B	$5.0B	$3.3B	$3.7B	$3.2B	Operating incomeOp. inc.
22.8%	26.9%	30.8%	29.8%	34.5%	27.1%	19.6%	52.1%	37.7%	34.4%	28.5%	Operating marginOp. mgn
($171M)	$490M	$1.3B	$1.2B	$1.2B	$1.6B	$2.5B	$4.3B	$2.5B	$3.0B	$2.5B	Net incomeNet inc.
—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0%	0%	0%	0%	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$0	$977M	$1.9B	$1.5B	$1.8B	$2.3B	$4.1B	$3.1B	$3.0B	$2.8B	$3.0B	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$156M	$339M	$424M	$527M	$551M	$557M	$634M	$672M	$680M	$688M	$691M	DepreciationDeprec.
$15M	$148M	$176M	($155M)	$17M	$104M	$1.0B	($1.8B)	($222M)	($907M)	($210M)	Working capital & otherWC & other
$2.3B	$1.3B	$804M	$1.3B	$972M	$648M	$451M	$220M	$154M	$199M	$170M	CapexCapex
211.2%	30.0%	12.5%	19.5%	15.8%	6.9%	2.6%	2.3%	1.8%	1.8%	1.5%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
($156M)	$638M	$1.4B	$1.0B	$1.2B	$1.6B	$3.7B	$2.9B	$2.8B	$2.6B	$2.8B	Owner earningsOwner earn.
−14.2%	14.8%	22.6%	14.9%	19.5%	17.4%	21.5%	29.9%	32.3%	23.9%	25.0%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($2.3B)	($313M)	$1.1B	$216M	$779M	$1.6B	$3.7B	$2.9B	$2.8B	$2.6B	$2.8B	Free cash flowFCF
−211.2%	−7.3%	16.6%	3.2%	12.6%	17.4%	21.5%	29.9%	32.3%	23.9%	25.0%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
											Balance sheet
$0	$0	$0	$1.8B	$1.2B	$876M	$904M	$575M	$270M	$182M	$279M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$90M	$191M	$348M	$283M	$300M	$546M	$551M	$0	$1M	$0	$0	ReceivablesReceiv.
$97M	$95M	$99M	$116M	$107M	$176M	$160M	$142M	$151M	$180M	$151M	InventoryInvent.
$27M	$12M	$15M	$40M	$12M	$21M	$32M	$69M	$62M	$53M	$52M	Accounts payablePayables
$160M	$274M	$432M	$359M	$395M	$701M	$679M	$73M	$90M	$127M	$99M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$958M	$2.1B	$2.4B	$2.7B	$2.1B	$2.2B	$2.6B	$1.6B	$1.3B	$1.3B	$1.3B	Current assetsCur. assets
$856M	$829M	$1.1B	$966M	$883M	$1.3B	$2.4B	$1.6B	$1.7B	$1.7B	$3.0B	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
1.1×	2.6×	2.2×	2.8×	2.4×	1.6×	1.1×	1.0×	0.8×	0.8×	0.4×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$15.5B	$17.6B	$18.0B	$19.4B	$19.1B	$19.4B	$19.6B	$18.1B	$17.5B	$17.4B	$17.1B	Total assetsAssets
$14.6B	$16.2B	$16.3B	$17.8B	$17.8B	$17.3B	$16.3B	$16.0B	$15.1B	$14.5B	$18.1B	Total debtDebt
$14.6B	$16.2B	$16.3B	$16.0B	$16.5B	$16.5B	$15.4B	$15.5B	$14.8B	$14.3B	$17.8B	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
0.7×	1.9×	2.7×	2.3×	2.3×	3.1×	3.9×	6.1×	4.1×	4.9×	4.4×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
											Per share
57.1M	179M	349M	349M	399M	484M	—	—	—	—	484M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$19.19	$24.11	$18.44	$19.61	$15.44	$19.49	—	—	—	—	$23.49	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$-2.99	$2.75	$3.65	$3.37	$2.96	$3.37	—	—	—	—	$5.23	EPS (diluted)EPS
$-2.73	$3.57	$4.16	$2.93	$3.01	$3.39	—	—	—	—	$5.87	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-40.54	$-1.75	$3.07	$0.62	$1.95	$3.39	—	—	—	—	$5.87	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$40.54	$7.23	$2.31	$3.82	$2.43	$1.34	—	—	—	—	$0.35	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh

The diluted share count moved ×3.13 into 2017 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

The diluted share count moved ×1.95 into 2018 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

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

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+0.3%/yr (5-yr)	+0.3%/yr
Capital spending / share	−49.4%/yr (5-yr)	−49.4%/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.

Revenue+23.6%
“Total revenues The $2.1 billion increase in total revenues during the year ended December 31, 2025 as compared to the same period of 2024 was primarily due to: •$2.1 billion increase from higher pricing per MMBtu as a result of increased Henry Hub pricing; partially offset by •$140 million decrease from lower production volume primarily due to the planned large-scale maintenance activities on two trains at the Liquefaction Project.”
✓ 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

484Mpeak FY2021

Gross margin

47%low FY2017

Net debt ÷ owner earnings

5.6×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.

$2.6Bowner earningsvs.$3.0Bnet incomelow FY2016

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetained

Each year's operating cash, by what management did with it: the mix, and how it drifts.

FY2017FY2025

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 $3.0B of profit but $2.6B of owner earnings: $418M less than the profit line, taken out by capital spending and the timing of cash.

Reported net income$3.0B

Owner earnings$2.6B · 24% of revenue

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	$3.0B	$2.5B	$4.3B	$2.5B	$1.6B
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$688M	+$680M	+$672M	+$634M	+$557M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$907M	−$222M	−$1.8B	+$1.0B	+$104M
Cash from operations	$2.8B	$3.0B	$3.1B	$4.1B	$2.3B
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow	−$199M	−$154M	−$220M	−$451M	−$648M
Owner earnings	$2.6B	$2.8B	$2.9B	$3.7B	$1.6B
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	24%	32%	30%	21%	17%

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 .

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? 4.9×

Adequate

Operating income $3.7B ÷ interest expense $753M

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? $17.4B · 4.7× operating profit

Heavy net debt

Cash $182M − debt $17.6B

What this means
Netting $182M of cash and short-term investments against $17.6B of debt leaves $17.4B owed, about 4.7× 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? 14d

Tight

DSO 0 + DIO 19 − DPO 6 days

What this means
Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. Lower is better; a long cycle means growth itself eats cash.

Is it a good business?

Return on invested capital —

Not enough data

Industry peers: median 6%

What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
Owner-earnings margin 19%

High through the cycle

10-yr median margin, range -14%–32%; latest $2.6B = operating cash $2.8B − maintenance capex $199M

Industry peers: median 18%

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 24% of revenue this year, a 19% median across 10 years.
Are earnings backed by cash? 0.93×

Mostly cash-backed

Cash from ops $2.8B ÷ net income $3.0B

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? 0.29×

Harvesting

Capex $199M ÷ depreciation $688M

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 · $10.8B

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× · 0.78×

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 · $17.6B vs ($370M) 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 Pass

Earnings +33% over the record · +512%

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 $6.72/share (latest year $6.17), 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 27% → 41% (3-yr avg ends)

In the filing’s words The margin widened even though the filing names price competition — the gain came from volume or cost, not pricing power. Read where.

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about 27% early to 41% lately, median 30% — pricing power intact or improving.
Owner earnings growth +31%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 31% a year over the record.
Worst year 2022 · 19.6% op. margin

What this means
Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.

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$1.3B

Cash & short-term investments$279M
Inventory$151M
Other current assets$820M

Current liabilities$3.0B

Debt due within a year$1.6B
Accounts payable$52M
Other current liabilities$1.3B

Current ratio0.42×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio0.37×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.09×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital($1.7B)the cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$1.6B due · $279M 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+20.4%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters0.7× → 0.4×

Deeper floors

Net current asset value($15.8B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$14.3B$78M of it operating leases

Deferred revenue$94Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

Debt maturity

the debt note, SEC EDGAR →

Not how much it owes, but when it falls due, and against what. The ladder the company files, beside cash on hand and a year's owner earnings.

'26$307M

'27$1.6B

'28$1.5B

'29$1.6B

'30$2.1B

later$7.4B

Bars scaled to the largest single year; “later” is everything due after 2030, shown apart since it dwarfs the years.

Due in the next 12 months$307Mthe first rung: what must be repaid or rolled over within the year

Within two years$1.9Bthe near wall, the part most exposed to today’s credit conditions

Biggest single year$2.1Bin 2030the lumpiest maturity, where a refinancing, if needed, is largest

Total scheduled principal$14.6Bevery year plus what lies beyond, as the footnote totals it

Against what the business has and earns

Cash & short-term investments, Mar 31, 2026$279M

One year of owner earnings (FY2025)$2.6B

Together, against $307M due next year9.3×

Cash on hand as of Mar 31, 2026 plus a year’s owner earnings comes to $2.8B against the $307M due in the twelve months after the Dec 31, 2025 schedule: 9.3 times it.

Maturity schedule extracted from the company’s Dec 31, 2025 annual report and reconciled to the total the table states.

How the cash was used, 2016–2025

Over the record, the business generated $21.4B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a balanced allocator, splitting cash between the business, owners, and the balance sheet.

Reinvested$8.4B · 39%
Retained (debt / cash)$13.1B · 61%

Source of fundingOperating cash
Operating cash covered reinvestment and returns; over the span debt rose $3.5B and cash and short-term investments rose $279M.
Net change in share count747.6%
The diluted count rose from 57M to 484M: 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 retained12%
Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($17.8B over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $2.1B, so each retained $1 added about 0.12 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 Cheniere Energy Partners LP 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.

1 of the 5 tests turned up something to look into; the other 4 came back clean.

Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?747.6%
Diluted shares grew 747.6% 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.

And these 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?

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
LNGCheniere Energy Inc.	$19.5B	45%	25.7%	19%	18%
TRGPTarga Resources Inc.	$17.0B	19%	4.0%	5%	8%
KMIKinder Morgan Inc.	$15.2B	68%	27.8%	5%	20%
WMBWilliams Companies Inc. (The)	$14.9B	77%	22.1%	6%	20%
VGVenture Global Inc.	$13.8B	—	37.4%	10%	41%
CQPCheniere Energy Partners LP Common	$10.8B	47%	30.3%	—	20%
WCNWaste Connections Inc.	$9.5B	41%	15.5%	6%	15%
OGSONE Gas	$2.6B	57%	17.9%	6%	-6%
Group median	—	47%	23.9%	—	19%

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 Cheniere Energy Partners LP Common has delivered.

Cheniere Energy Partners LP Common’s latest year runs above its own through-cycle margin — the reported figure may flatter a peak. So the tool opens on the through-cycle base, Graham’s averaging cutting both ways; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, Cheniere Energy Partners LP Common earns about $2.2B on its 20.5% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 23.9% margin runs above that; the reported figure may flatter a peak you'd be paying on. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year. It comes pre-checked here for that reason, the same rule that already normalizes a trough; clear it to price the year as filed.

Base Normalize · through-cycle ($2.2B) Net of stock comp

—

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+0%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · since FY2018+13%/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 $2.8B on 484M diluted shares; net debt $17.8B. The base opens on the through-cycle figure (the latest year sits above the record’s own median, and Graham’s averaging cuts both ways); clear Normalize to use the year as filed. 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 CQP against another business →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Cheniere Energy Partners LP Common (CQP), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/CQP, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← CPT its page in the Manual CR →

Industry order: ← CPK the Gas Utilities chapter EE →