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LNG, Cheniere Energy Inc.

Gas Utilities capital-intensive Regulated utilityCyclical

A regulated utility, earning a set return on the capital it sinks into its network.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K

LNG · Cheniere Energy Inc.

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025

$19.5B

+26.3% YoY · 16% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $20.8B 5-yr avg $21.1B

Gross margin 76%

Operating margin 22.5% 5-yr avg 34.9%

ROIC 10% 5-yr avg 23%

Owner-earnings margin 19% 5-yr avg 24%

Free cash flow margin 11% 5-yr avg 20%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

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

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. Cyclical. Margins collapse and recover repeatedly across the record; a single year, good or bad, misstates the through-cycle earning power.
What moves the needle: Gross margin has run about 45% and operating margin about 26% through the cycle, a spread the cycle sets more than the company does. The margin is cyclical, swinging between −4.0% and 78% over the years, so the through-cycle figure carries more than any single year — and the balance sheet at the trough more than the peak. Capital spending runs about 16% 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 customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?: Return on capital has run in the teens (median 19%, above 15% in 3 of 5 years). Owner earnings agree: roughly 18% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. Returns like these are solid but short of clear franchise economics; whether they hold is what the 10-K settles, not the multiple.

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
$1.3B	$5.6B	$7.9B	$9.2B	$9.3B	$17.5B	$33.3B	$19.8B	$15.4B	$19.5B	$20.8B	RevenueRevenue
55%	45%	42%	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	76%	Gross marginGross mgn
20%	5%	4%	3%	3%	2%	1%	2%	3%	2%	2%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
1%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	—	—	—	0%	R&D / revenueR&D/rev
($30M)	$1.4B	$2.0B	$2.4B	$2.6B	($701M)	$4.6B	$15.5B	$6.1B	$9.1B	$4.7B	Operating incomeOp. inc.
−2.3%	24.6%	25.6%	25.8%	28.3%	−4.0%	13.7%	78.3%	39.8%	46.8%	22.5%	Operating marginOp. mgn
($610M)	($393M)	$471M	$648M	($85M)	($2.3B)	$1.4B	$9.9B	$3.3B	$5.3B	$1.5B	Net incomeNet inc.
—	—	5%	—	—	—	24%	20%	20%	22%	41%	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
($404M)	$1.2B	$2.0B	$1.8B	$1.3B	$2.5B	$10.5B	$8.4B	$5.4B	$5.5B	$5.4B	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$174M	$356M	$449M	$794M	$932M	$1.0B	$1.1B	$1.2B	$1.2B	$1.3B	$1.4B	DepreciationDeprec.
($69M)	$1.2B	$957M	$260M	$308M	$3.7B	$7.8B	($2.9B)	$707M	($1.3B)	$2.3B	Working capital & otherWC & other
$4.4B	$3.4B	$3.6B	$3.1B	$1.8B	$966M	$1.8B	$2.1B	$2.2B	$3.1B	$3.2B	CapexCapex
339.8%	59.5%	46.1%	33.4%	19.8%	5.5%	5.5%	10.7%	14.5%	15.8%	15.4%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
($578M)	$875M	$1.5B	$1.0B	$333M	$1.5B	$9.4B	$7.2B	$4.2B	$4.2B	$4.0B	Owner earningsOwner earn.
−45.1%	15.5%	19.5%	11.3%	3.6%	8.6%	28.2%	36.5%	27.1%	21.6%	19.3%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($4.8B)	($2.1B)	($1.7B)	($1.2B)	($574M)	$1.5B	$8.7B	$6.3B	$3.2B	$2.5B	$2.2B	Free cash flowFCF
−371.3%	−37.7%	−20.9%	−13.4%	−6.2%	8.6%	26.1%	31.8%	20.5%	12.6%	10.6%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
—	—	—	$0	$0	$85M	$349M	$393M	$412M	$451M	$456M	Dividends paidDiv. paid
—	$0	$0	$249M	$155M	$9M	$1.4B	$1.5B	$2.3B	$2.7B	—	BuybacksBuybacks
-0%	—	—	—	—	-2%	—	50%	19%	24%	10%	ROICROIC
—	—	—	—	—	—	—	195%	57%	67%	39%	Return on equityROE
—	—	—	—	—	—	—	188%	50%	62%	27%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$876M	$722M	$981M	$2.5B	$1.6B	$1.4B	$1.4B	$4.1B	$2.6B	$1.1B	$1.3B	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$218M	$369M	$585M	$491M	$647M	$1.5B	$1.9B	—	$661M	$1.2B	$1.1B	ReceivablesReceiv.
$160M	$243M	$316M	$312M	$292M	$706M	$826M	$445M	$501M	$524M	$678M	InventoryInvent.
$49M	$25M	$58M	$66M	$35M	$155M	$124M	$181M	$171M	$123M	$241M	Accounts payablePayables
$329M	$587M	$843M	$737M	$904M	$2.1B	$2.6B	$264M	$991M	$1.6B	$1.5B	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$2.2B	$3.4B	$4.2B	$4.2B	$3.2B	$5.1B	$5.6B	$6.3B	$4.8B	$3.7B	$4.2B	Current assetsCur. assets
$1.1B	$1.3B	$1.7B	$1.9B	$2.2B	$4.7B	$6.8B	$3.9B	$4.4B	$3.9B	$7.3B	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
2.1×	2.7×	2.4×	2.2×	1.4×	1.1×	0.8×	1.6×	1.1×	0.9×	0.6×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$77M	$77M	$77M	$77M	$77M	$77M	$77M	$77M	$77M	$77M	$77M	GoodwillGoodwill
$23.7B	$27.9B	$32.0B	$35.5B	$35.7B	$39.3B	$41.3B	$43.1B	$43.9B	$47.9B	$46.8B	Total assetsAssets
$22.7B	$26.1B	$29.2B	$31.5B	$31.5B	$30.4B	$25.1B	$23.9B	$23.1B	$23.0B	$23.9B	Total debtDebt
$21.8B	$25.3B	$28.2B	$29.0B	$29.9B	$29.0B	$23.7B	$19.8B	$20.5B	$21.9B	$22.6B	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
-0.1×	1.9×	2.3×	1.6×	1.7×	-0.5×	3.2×	13.6×	6.1×	9.6×	4.8×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
($1.4B)	($1.8B)	($526M)	($14M)	($191M)	($2.6B)	($3.0B)	$5.1B	$5.7B	$7.9B	$3.8B	Shareholders’ equityEquity
7.9%	1.6%	1.4%	1.4%	1.2%	0.8%	0.6%	1.3%	1.4%	0.8%	0.9%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
											Per share
229M	233M	248M	258M	252M	253M	253M	243M	229M	220M	211M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$5.60	$24.22	$31.84	$35.48	$36.82	$69.18	$131.44	$81.54	$67.28	$88.35	$98.63	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$-2.67	$-1.69	$1.90	$2.51	$-0.34	$-9.25	$5.64	$40.73	$14.19	$24.19	$7.01	EPS (diluted)EPS
$-2.53	$3.75	$6.21	$4.03	$1.32	$5.93	$37.11	$29.77	$18.22	$19.11	$19.01	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-20.80	$-9.12	$-6.67	$-4.74	$-2.27	$5.93	$34.31	$25.96	$13.78	$11.17	$10.45	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
—	—	—	$0.00	$0.00	$0.34	$1.38	$1.62	$1.80	$2.05	$2.17	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$19.04	$14.40	$14.69	$11.84	$7.29	$3.81	$7.22	$8.74	$9.77	$13.97	$15.16	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$-6.10	$-7.57	$-2.12	$-0.05	$-0.76	$-10.15	$-11.72	$20.86	$24.88	$35.93	$17.84	Book value / shareBVPS

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

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+35.9%/yr	+19.1%/yr
Owner earnings / share	—	+70.7%/yr
Capital spending / share	−3.4%/yr	+13.9%/yr

The record, charted

FY2016–2025

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

Share count

220Mpeak FY2019

ROIC

24%low FY2021

Gross margin

42%low FY2018

Net debt ÷ owner earnings

5.2×peak FY2020

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

$4.2Bowner earningsvs.$5.3Bnet 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 earned $4.2B of owner earnings, the operating cash left after the $1.3B it takes just to hold its position. It put $1.7B more into growth; free cash flow, after that spending, was $2.5B.

Reported net income$5.3B

Owner earnings$4.2B · 22% of revenue

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	$5.3B	$3.3B	$9.9B	$1.4B	($2.3B)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$1.3B	+$1.2B	+$1.2B	+$1.1B	+$1.0B
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$161M	+$215M	+$250M	+$205M	+$140M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$1.3B	+$707M	−$2.9B	+$7.8B	+$3.7B
Cash from operations	$5.5B	$5.4B	$8.4B	$10.5B	$2.5B
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume	−$1.3B	−$1.2B	−$1.2B	−$1.1B	−$966M
Owner earnings	$4.2B	$4.2B	$7.2B	$9.4B	$1.5B
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still	−$1.7B	−$1.0B	−$925M	−$711M	—
Free cash flow	$2.5B	$3.2B	$6.3B	$8.7B	$1.5B
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	22%	27%	37%	28%	9%

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 $1.3B, roughly its depreciation, the rate its assets wear out). The other $1.7B 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 $161M), owner earnings is nearer $4.0B.

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

III

Quality & stewardship

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

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2025 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 9.6×

Comfortable

Operating income $9.1B ÷ interest expense $948M

What this means
Operating profit covers interest with the kind of margin Graham wanted for a defensive holding. Necessary, not sufficient, it says solvent, not cheap.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $22.8B · 2.5× operating profit

Meaningful net debt

Cash $1.1B − debt $23.9B

What this means
Netting $1.1B of cash and short-term investments against $23.9B of debt leaves $22.8B owed, about 2.5× a year's operating profit (2.6× 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? 55d

Tight

DSO 23 + DIO 42 − DPO 10 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 19%

High through the cycle

5-yr median, range -2%–50%; 23% latest = NOPAT $7.1B ÷ invested capital $30.7B

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 5 years (it ran 23% 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 16%

High through the cycle

10-yr median margin, range -45%–37%; latest $4.2B = operating cash $5.5B − maintenance capex $1.3B

Industry peers: median 20%

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 22% of revenue this year, a 16% median across 10 years. It chose to put $1.7B more into growth, so free cash flow this year was $2.5B — the gap is investment, not weakness. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $161M of SBC) leaves $4.0B.
Are earnings backed by cash? 1.04×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $5.5B ÷ net income $5.3B

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? 75%

Returns about half

Dividends + buybacks $3.2B ÷ Owner Earnings $4.2B

What this means
Of $4.2B Owner Earnings, $3.2B (75%) went back to shareholders, $451M dividends, $2.7B buybacks. Net of $161M stock comp, the real buyback was about $2.6B. 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? 2.32×

Expanding

Capex $3.1B ÷ depreciation $1.3B

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 · 1 of 5 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 · $19.5B

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 Miss

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 0.94×

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 · $23.9B vs ($224M) 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 Miss

A profit every year (10-yr record) · 4 loss years

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 · 5 of 10 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 —

Earnings +33% over the record · —

What this means
Earnings were negative early in the record, a growth rate isn't meaningful.
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 $29.37/share (latest year $25.44), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $37.77/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 6 of 10

What this means
Lost money in 4 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
Return on capital ≥ 15% 4 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 16% → 55% (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 16% early to 55% lately, median 26% — pricing power intact or improving.
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 +45%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 45% a year over the record.
Worst year 2021 · −4.0% op. margin

What this means
Operations went underwater in 2021, understand why before trusting the good years.
Share count −0.4%/yr

What this means
Roughly flat share count, little dilution, little buyback.
Dividend record rising

What this means
Paid and raised the dividend across the record, the continuity Graham prized.
How management talks about it Promotional

What this means
The record is compounding, but the filing leans on a promoter’s vocabulary rather than the per-share, return-on-capital terms an owner uses. The results back the talk here; the register is still worth noting.

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$4.2B

Cash & short-term investments$1.3B
Receivables$1.1B
Inventory$678M
Other current assets$1.1B

Current liabilities$7.3B

Debt due within a year$1.6B
Accounts payable$241M
Other current liabilities$5.4B

Current ratio0.57×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio0.48×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.18×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital($3.1B)the cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$1.6B due · $1.3B 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+7.8%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters1.0× → 0.6×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$3.7Bequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value($34.0B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$26.4B$2.7B of it operating leases; with finance leases, “total fixed claims” below reaches $27.5B (annual-report basis)

Deferred revenue$111Mcustomer 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$2.9B

'28$3.6B

'29$2.9B

'30$2.3B

later$10.9B

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$3.2Bthe near wall, the part most exposed to today’s credit conditions

Biggest single year$3.6Bin 2028the lumpiest maturity, where a refinancing, if needed, is largest

Total scheduled principal$23.0Bevery year plus what lies beyond, as the footnote totals it

Against what the business has and earns

Cash & short-term investments, Mar 31, 2026$1.3B

One year of owner earnings (FY2025)$4.2B

Together, against $307M due next year18.0×

Cash on hand as of Mar 31, 2026 plus a year’s owner earnings comes to $5.5B against the $307M due in the twelve months after the Dec 31, 2025 schedule: 18 times it.

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

Lease obligations

the lease note, SEC EDGAR →

Debt by another name. What the business owes on the property, aircraft, stores and equipment it rents rather than owns is a fixed claim due on a schedule; added back to the debt, it is the true leverage. That ladder, operating and finance leases together, and what it adds to the debt on the page above.

Operating leasesFinance leases

'26$812M

'27$729M

'28$550M

'29$461M

'30$446M

later$1.5B

Lease payments by year, scaled to the largest; “later” is everything beyond year five, shown apart. These are the contractual cash payments, before the interest the filing imputes back out to the balance-sheet liability.

Due in the next 12 months$812Ma fixed cash payment, owed whether or not the business has a good year

Total lease payments$4.5Bevery year plus the tail, undiscounted: the full cash the leases will take

On the balance sheet$3.6Bthe present value of those payments, the recognised lease liability

True leverage: debt plus leases

On-balance-sheet debt$23.9B

Lease obligations (present value)$3.6B

Total fixed claims on the business$27.5B

Counting the leases the way Buffett does, the fixed claims on this business come to $27.5B, of which the leases are 13%. The lease wall above and the debt schedule together are the calendar of what must be paid, and when.

Lease ladder read from the ASC 842 tags in the company’s Dec 31, 2025 annual report and reconciled: the yearly buckets sum to the undiscounted total, which less the imputed interest equals the balance-sheet liability; a ladder that doesn’t tie out is withheld.

How the cash was used, 2016–2025

Over the record, the business generated $38.3B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a reinvestor, most operating cash is plowed back into the business.

Reinvested$26.5B · 69%
Dividends$1.7B · 4%
Buybacks$8.2B · 22%
Retained (debt / cash)$1.8B · 5%

Returned to owners$9.9B
33% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $1.7B as dividends and $8.2B as buybacks.
Average price paid for buybacks$159.29
Across the years where the filing reports a share count, 52M shares were bought for $8.2B, about $159.29 each. Year to year the price paid ranged from $53.82 (2020) to $224.38 (2025), and 2025, near the top of that range, was also its heaviest buyback year ($2.7B).
Net change in share count−8.0%
The diluted count fell from 229M to 211M, so the buybacks outran the stock issued to staff.
Dividend record$2.05/sh
Paid in 5 of the years on record. It was never cut over the span.
Return on what it retained60%
Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($7.6B over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $4.6B, so each retained $1 added about 0.60 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.

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	Jack A. Fusco	$18.1M	$64.8M	$1.5B
2022	Jack A. Fusco	$22.6M	$77.0M	$9.4B
2023	Jack A. Fusco	$21.6M	$50.0M	$7.2B
2024	Jack A. Fusco	$24.2M	$62.0M	$4.2B
2025	Jack A. Fusco	$25.6M	$24.6M	$4.2B

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 ownership<1%
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$161M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 1% of revenue, equal to 2% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why Cheniere Energy 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 6 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 the share count rise anyway?
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.

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
OKEONEOK Inc.	$33.6B	29%	15.8%	8%	13%
AEPAmerican Electric Power Company Inc.	$21.7B	—	19.2%	6%	26%
LNGCheniere Energy Inc.	$19.5B	45%	25.7%	19%	18%
VSTVistra	$17.6B	—	10.8%	7%	17%
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%
CQPCheniere Energy Partners LP Common	$10.8B	47%	30.3%	—	20%
Group median	—	46%	20.6%	6%	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 Inc. has delivered.

Cheniere Energy Inc.’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 Inc. earns about $3.4B on its 17.5% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 21.6% 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 ($3.4B) Net of stock comp (−$183M) Steady-state · maintenance capex ($4.1B)

—

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→’25−6%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · since FY2021+13%/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 $2.2B on 210M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-05-01; net debt $22.6B. 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. Capex ($3.2B) runs well above depreciation ($1.4B), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $4.1B, 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 LNG against another business →

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

Manual order: ← LNC its page in the Manual LNN →

Industry order: ← EE the Gas Utilities chapter NFG →