← All companies ← FINV Manual FLX → ← ESEA Marine Shipping FRO →

FLNG, FLEX LNG Ltd.

A capital-intensive business, run on heavy physical assets that must be kept working and earn a return above what they cost to maintain.

Latest annual: FY2025 20-F · US listing is the ordinary share

FLNG · FLEX LNG Ltd.

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025

$348M

−2.4% YoY · 16% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $348M 5-yr avg $353M

Operating margin 50.6% 5-yr avg 56.2%

ROIC 8% 5-yr avg 9%

Owner-earnings margin 40% 5-yr avg 49%

Free cash flow margin 40% 5-yr avg 37%

The business in brief

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

What moves the needle: Operating margin has run about 51% through the cycle, a wide margin for the work it does — whether that reflects a durable edge or one that can fade is what the record weighs. The operating margin has swung widely — from −46% to 59% over the years — so the through-cycle figure carries more than any single year, and the worst year more than the best.
Is it a good business?: Return on capital has sat near the cost of capital (median 8%). By owner earnings: roughly 42% 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.

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2017–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2017’17	2018’18	2019’19	2020’20	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24	2025’25	TTMTTMDec 2025
										Income statement
$27M	$77M	$120M	$164M	$343M	$348M	$371M	$356M	$348M	$348M	RevenueRevenue
($13M)	$29M	$55M	$76M	$201M	$201M	$217M	$198M	$176M	$176M	Operating incomeOp. inc.
−46.2%	37.6%	45.9%	46.0%	58.6%	57.7%	58.5%	55.5%	50.6%	50.6%	Operating marginOp. mgn
($10M)	$12M	$17M	$8M	$162M	$188M	$120M	$118M	$75M	$75M	Net incomeNet inc.
—	-0%	1%	1%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	Effective tax rateTax rate
										Cash flow & returns
($18M)	$36M	$52M	$89M	$215M	$220M	$175M	$183M	$141M	$141M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$2K	$17M	$29M	$42M	$70M	$72M	$73M	$75M	$77M	$77M	DepreciationDeprec.
($7M)	$7M	$6M	$39M	($17M)	($40M)	($18M)	($10M)	($11M)	($11M)	Working capital & otherWC & other
$0	$0	$292M	$566M	$266M	$0	$0	$4K	$0	$0	CapexCapex
0.0%	0.0%	243.0%	343.9%	77.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
($18M)	$36M	$23M	$47M	$145M	$220M	$175M	$183M	$141M	$141M	Owner earningsOwner earn.
−65.0%	46.3%	19.0%	28.9%	42.2%	63.2%	47.2%	51.3%	40.5%	40.5%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($18M)	$36M	($240M)	($476M)	($51M)	$220M	$175M	$183M	$141M	$141M	Free cash flowFCF
−65.0%	46.3%	−200.1%	−289.6%	−14.9%	63.2%	47.2%	51.3%	40.5%	40.5%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$0	$0	$5M	$11M	$99M	$186M	$181M	$162M	$162M	$162M	Dividends paidDiv. paid
—	$0	$0	$2M	$8M	$0	$0	—	—	—	BuybacksBuybacks
-2%	2%	4%	—	9%	9%	10%	9%	8%	8%	ROICROIC
-2%	1%	2%	1%	18%	21%	14%	15%	10%	10%	Return on equityROE
−2%	1%	1%	−0%	7%	0%	−7%	−5%	−12%	−12%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
										Balance sheet
—	$55M	$129M	$129M	$201M	$332M	$410M	$437M	$448M	$448M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
—	$0	$5M	$4M	$5M	$5M	$447K	$1M	$392K	$392K	ReceivablesReceiv.
—	$915K	$3M	$4M	$6M	$5M	$5M	$5M	$9M	$9M	InventoryInvent.
—	$592K	$582K	$3M	$2M	$2M	$4M	$2M	$11M	$11M	Accounts payablePayables
—	$323K	$8M	$4M	$10M	$8M	$2M	$4M	($1M)	($1M)	Operating working capitalOper. WC
—	$60M	$144M	$158M	$225M	$354M	$443M	$474M	$503M	$503M	Current assetsCur. assets
—	$35M	$58M	$132M	$132M	$153M	$153M	$159M	$166M	$166M	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
—	1.7×	2.5×	1.2×	1.7×	2.3×	2.9×	3.0×	3.0×	3.0×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
—	$1.3B	$1.6B	$2.3B	$2.6B	$2.7B	$2.7B	$2.7B	$2.6B	$2.6B	Total assetsAssets
—	$455M	$779M	$1.4B	$1.6B	$1.7B	$1.8B	$1.8B	$1.8B	$1.8B	Total debtDebt
—	$400M	$650M	$1.3B	$1.4B	$1.4B	$1.4B	$1.4B	$1.4B	$1.4B	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
-53.9×	1.6×	1.6×	1.8×	3.6×	2.6×	2.0×	1.9×	1.9×	1.6×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$520M	$827M	$839M	$835M	$889M	$907M	$848M	$807M	$719M	$719M	Shareholders’ equityEquity
										Per share
30.8M	40.6M	54.2M	54.3M	53.3M	53.5M	54.0M	54.0M	54.1M	54.1M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$0.89	$1.90	$2.21	$3.03	$6.44	$6.50	$6.87	$6.60	$6.43	$6.42	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$-0.34	$0.29	$0.31	$0.15	$3.04	$3.51	$2.22	$2.18	$1.38	$1.38	EPS (diluted)EPS
$-0.58	$0.88	$0.42	$0.87	$2.72	$4.11	$3.24	$3.38	$2.60	$2.60	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-0.58	$0.88	$-4.42	$-8.78	$-0.96	$4.11	$3.24	$3.38	$2.60	$2.60	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.00	$0.00	$0.10	$0.20	$1.85	$3.48	$3.36	$2.99	$3.00	$3.00	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$0.00	$0.00	$5.37	$10.42	$4.99	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$16.91	$20.38	$15.47	$15.39	$16.67	$16.95	$15.70	$14.93	$13.30	$13.29	Book value / shareBVPS

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

	8-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+28.1%/yr	+16.2%/yr
Owner earnings / share	—	+24.4%/yr
EPS	—	+56.1%/yr
Dividends / share	—	+72.0%/yr
Book value / share	−3.0%/yr	−2.9%/yr

The record, charted

FY2017–2025

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

Share count

54Mpeak FY2020

ROIC

8%low FY2017

Net debt ÷ owner earnings

10.0×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.

$141Mowner earningsvs.$75Mnet incomelow FY2017

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetained

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

FY2018FY2025

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 $75M of profit into $141M 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$75M

Owner earnings$141M · 40% of revenue

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	$75M	$118M	$120M	$188M	$162M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$77M	+$75M	+$73M	+$72M	+$70M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$11M	−$10M	−$18M	−$40M	−$17M
Cash from operations	$141M	$183M	$175M	$220M	$215M
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume	—	−$4K	—	—	−$70M
Owner earnings	$141M	$183M	$175M	$220M	$145M
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still	—	—	—	—	−$196M
Free cash flow	$141M	$183M	$175M	$220M	($51M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	40%	51%	47%	63%	42%

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 20-F · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 1.6×

Thin

Operating income $176M ÷ interest expense $109M

What this means
Operating profit covers interest, but with little room. A bad year, a refinancing at higher rates, or a revenue wobble closes the gap fast.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $1.4B · 8.0× operating profit

Heavy net debt

Cash $448M − debt $1.8B

What this means
Netting $448M of cash and short-term investments against $1.8B of debt leaves $1.4B owed, about 8.0× a year's operating profit (10.5× 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 8%

Solid through the cycle

8-yr median, range -2%–10%; 8% latest = NOPAT $176M ÷ invested capital $2.1B

Industry peers: median 4%

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 8 years (it ran 8% 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 42%

High through the cycle

9-yr median margin, range -65%–63%; latest $141M = operating cash $141M − maintenance capex $0

Industry peers: median 12%

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 40% of revenue this year, a 42% median across 9 years.
Are earnings backed by cash? 1.88×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $141M ÷ net income $75M

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? 115%

Returned more than it generated

Dividends + buybacks $162M ÷ Owner Earnings $141M

What this means
The company returned more than it generated: against $141M of Owner Earnings, $162M (115%) went back to shareholders, $162M dividends, $0 buybacks — the excess came from the balance sheet or borrowing, not the year's operations. Sustained, that pattern draws down cash or adds debt; the net-debt line above shows where it stands.
Investing or harvesting? 0.00×

Harvesting

Capex $0 ÷ depreciation $77M

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 Miss

Revenue ≥ $2B · $348M

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× · 3.03×

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 · $1.8B vs $337M 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 (9-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 · 7 of 9 yrs

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 · +1604%

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 $1.93/share (latest year $1.38), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $13.30/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, 2017–2025

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

Profitable years 8 of 9

What this means
Lost money in 1 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
Return on capital ≥ 15% 0 of 8 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 12% → 55% (3-yr avg ends)

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about 12% early to 55% lately, median 51% — pricing power intact or improving.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC 30%

What this means
Every extra dollar the business reinvested came back at a high incremental return — the lens GBM read for a moat that reinvests rather than merely harvests. The record and the 10-K are where you check whether the rate holds.
Owner earnings growth +44%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 44% a year over the record.
Worst year 2017 · −46.2% op. margin

What this means
Operations went underwater in 2017, understand why before trusting the good years.
Share count +7.3%/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 fiscal year-end, Dec 31, 2025

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$503M

Cash & short-term investments$448M
Receivables$392K
Inventory$9M
Other current assets$46M

Current liabilities$166M

Debt due within a year$110M
Accounts payable$11M
Other current liabilities$46M

Current ratio3.03×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio2.98×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio2.70×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$337Mthe cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$110M due · $448M cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Dec 31, 2025 balance sheet

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$719Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value($1.4B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$1.8Bno operating-lease liability tagged this quarter, so debt alone

Deferred revenue$25Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2017–2025

Over the record, the business generated $1.1B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a cash returner, paying most of what it earns straight back to owners.

Reinvested$1.1B · 103%
Dividends$806M · 74%
Buybacks$9M · 1%

Returned to owners$816M
86% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $806M as dividends and $9M as buybacks.
Source of funding−$847M
Reinvestment and shareholder returns ran $847M beyond the operating cash the business generated, so the gap was financed off the balance sheet.
Average price paid for buybacks—
Buybacks ran $9M over the span, but the filings don't tag the share count needed to deduce the average price paid.
Net change in share count75.9%
The diluted count rose from 31M to 54M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
Dividend record$3.00/sh
Paid in 7 of the years on record. It was cut at least once along the way.

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 FLEX LNG Ltd. 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 2017–2025.

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

Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?75.9%
Diluted shares grew 75.9% over 2017–2025, even as the company spent $9M 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.

And these came back clean

Is it less profitable than it was?
Did reported profit become cash?

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, Marine Shipping

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
KEXKirby	$3.4B	—	7.7%	4%	10%
MATXMatson	$3.3B	96%	11.4%	11%	12%
TDWTidewater Inc.	$1.4B	—	-12.5%	-6%	3%
INSWInternational Seaways Inc. Common Stock	$843M	—	12.3%	3%	33%
PANLPangaea Logistics Solutions Ltd.	$632M	—	7.7%	10%	10%
LPGDorian LPG Ltd.	$482M	—	35.2%	7%	38%
FLNGFLEX LNG Ltd.	$348M	—	50.6%	8%	42%
GNKGenco Shipping & Trading Limited	$342M	—	-1.1%	-0%	31%
Group median	—	—	9.6%	5%	21%

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Enter the US price, in dollars: the NYSE/Nasdaq quote you hold. FLEX LNG Ltd.'s US listing is the ordinary share itself. The record tables elsewhere on this page remain as filed.

Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what FLEX LNG Ltd. has delivered.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, FLEX LNG Ltd. earns about $147M on its 42.2% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 40.5% 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 ($147M) 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→’25−3%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · ’17→’25+44%/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.

Owner earnings $141M on 54M shares outstanding, per the 20-F cover, as of 2025-12-31; net debt $1.4B. 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 FLNG against another business →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "FLEX LNG Ltd. (FLNG), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/FLNG, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← FINV its page in the Manual FLX →

Industry order: ← ESEA the Marine Shipping chapter FRO →