Owner Scorecard


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NGL, NGL ENERGY PARTNERS LP Common

Pipelines & Midstream capital-intensive UnprofitableDistress / turnaroundCyclical

Revenue is Products (76%) and Services (24%).

While maintaining complementary crude oil and natural gas liquids logistics operations, capital allocation and strategic focus are centered on providing water solutions services, which will reduce earnings volatility and enhance cash flow stability.

We are also focused on maintaining credit metrics to manage existing and future capital requirements as well as to take advantage of market opportunities.

Latest annual: FY2026 10-K
NGL · NGL ENERGY PARTNERS LP Common
I

The business

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

Revenue · FY2026
$3.2B
−9.0% YoY · −10% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $3.2B 5-yr avg $4.9B
Gross margin 31% 5-yr avg 22%
Operating margin 3.0% 5-yr avg 4.3%
Owner-earnings margin 5% 5-yr avg 3%
Free cash flow margin 5% 5-yr avg 3%

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.
Situation
Unprofitable. No sustained operating profit across the record; an earnings multiple has nothing to rest on. What the record does show is revenue, the gross-margin trajectory, and the burn against the cash on hand. Distress / turnaround. Thin interest coverage, or operating cash burned against real debt, across the record. The balance sheet carries this situation; the debt schedule sets the clock. 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 14% and operating margin about 2.7% through the cycle, a thin spread that turns the result on volume and the cost of what it sells far more than on the price it sets. The margin is cyclical, swinging between −7.5% and 12% 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. 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.

Where the money comes from

read the 10-K →

Products is 76% of revenue, with Services the other meaningful line at 24%.

Revenue by product line, FY2026
  • Products76%$2.4B
  • Services24%$760M

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

II

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2017–2026

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left
2017’172018’182019’192020’202021’212022’222023’232024’242025’252026’26TTMTTMMar 2026
Income statement
$1.7B$7.0B$8.7B$7.6B$5.2B$7.9B$5.7B$4.2B$3.5B$3.2B$3.2BRevenueRevenue
10%8%13%14%10%17%23%28%31%31%Gross marginGross mgn
6%1%1%1%1%1%1%3%2%2%2%SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
$206M$187M$127M($3M)($391M)$83M$244M$162M$329M$95M$95MOperating incomeOp. inc.
12.4%2.7%1.5%−0.0%−7.5%1.0%4.3%3.9%9.5%3.0%3.0%Operating marginOp. mgn
$137M($71M)$360M($397M)($640M)($185M)$51M($144M)$39M($142M)($142M)Net incomeNet inc.
1%0%0%Effective tax rateTax rate
Cash flow & returns
($25M)$138M$337M$464M$304M$206M$445M$376M$297M$366M$366MOperating cash flowOp. cash
$195M$220M$222M$277M$331M$306M$290M$282M$267M$269M$269MDepreciationDeprec.
($410M)($46M)($286M)$558M$606M$85M$101M$237M($9M)$228M$228MWorking capital & otherWC & other
$345M$134M$456M$556M$187M$142M$148M$152M$246M$221M$221MCapexCapex
20.7%1.9%5.2%7.3%3.6%1.8%2.6%3.7%7.1%7.0%7.0%Capex / revenueCapex/rev
($370M)$4M($118M)($92M)$117M$63M$297M$224M$52M$145M$145MOwner earningsOwner earn.
−22.2%0.1%−1.4%−1.2%2.2%0.8%5.2%5.4%1.5%4.6%4.6%Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($370M)$4M($118M)($92M)$117M$63M$297M$224M$52M$145M$145MFree cash flowFCF
−22.2%0.1%−1.4%−1.2%2.2%0.8%5.2%5.4%1.5%4.6%4.6%Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$42M$20M$301M$1.3B$0$0$0$0AcquisitionsAcquis.
$99K$84K$2M$48MBuybacksBuybacks
Balance sheet
$8M$22M$19M$23M$5M$4M$5M$39M$16M$9M$16MCash & investmentsCash+inv
$801M$1.0B$998M$567M$726M$1.1B$1.0B$1.0BReceivablesReceiv.
$561M$551M$136M$70M$158M$251M$143M$107M$70M$67M$67MInventoryInvent.
$658M$853M$879M$515M$680M$1.1B$928M$928MAccounts payablePayables
$704M$725M$255M$121M$205M$290M$249M$107M$70M$67M$174MOperating working capitalOper. WC
$1.5B$2.3B$1.8B$774M$1.0B$1.5B$1.3B$1.2B$962M$774M$774MCurrent assetsCur. assets
$939M$1.1B$1.3B$846M$911M$1.3B$1.1B$977M$739M$739M$739MCurrent liabilitiesCur. liab.
1.6×2.0×1.4×0.9×1.1×1.2×1.2×1.2×1.3×1.0×1.0×Current ratioCurr. ratio
$1.3B$1.2B$1.1B$994M$744M$744M$712M$617M$599M$352M$352MGoodwillGoodwill
$6.3B$6.2B$5.9B$6.5B$5.9B$6.1B$5.5B$5.0B$4.6B$4.2B$4.2BTotal assetsAssets
$3.0B$2.7B$2.2B$3.2B$3.4B$3.4B$2.9B$2.9B$3.0B$3.2B$3.2BTotal debtDebt
$3.0B$2.7B$2.2B$3.1B$3.4B$3.3B$2.9B$2.8B$3.0B$3.2B$3.2BNet debt / (cash)Net debt
1.4×0.9×0.8×-0.0×-2.0×0.3×0.9×0.6×1.2×0.4×0.4×Interest coverageInt. cov.
3.2%0.5%0.5%0.3%0.1%−0.0%0.0%0.0%0.0%0.4%0.4%Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
$117M$66M$250M$238M$69M$18M$248M$248MGoodwill written downGW imp.
Per share
112M121M123M127M129M130M132M132M132MShares out (diluted)Shares
$14.90$57.47$70.63$59.52$40.53$61.21$31.43$26.24$23.87Revenue / shareRev/sh
$1.23$-0.59$2.93$-3.12$-4.96$-1.42$-1.09$0.30$-1.08EPS (diluted)EPS
$-3.31$0.03$-0.96$-0.72$0.91$0.49$1.69$0.39$1.09Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-3.31$0.03$-0.96$-0.72$0.91$0.49$1.69$0.39$1.09Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$3.08$1.11$3.70$4.36$1.45$1.10$1.15$1.86$1.67Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
9-yr5-yr
Revenue / share+7.3%/yr (8-yr)−15.1%/yr
EPS−16.2%/yr (8-yr)
Capital spending / share−6.1%/yr (8-yr)−15.7%/yr

The record, charted

FY2017–2026

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

Share count
132Mpeak FY2025
Gross margin
31%low FY2019
Net debt ÷ owner earnings
22.3×peak FY2018

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

$145Mowner earningsvs.($142M)net incomelow FY2017

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.

FY2018FY2026

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 2026 the business turned a $142M loss into $145M of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.

FY2026FY2025FY2024FY2023FY2022
Reported net income($142M)$39M($144M)$51M($185M)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back+$269M+$267M+$282M+$290M+$306M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost+$11M+$1M+$3M−$1M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items+$228M−$9M+$237M+$101M+$85M
Cash from operations$366M$297M$376M$445M$206M
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow−$221M−$246M−$152M−$148M−$142M
Owner earnings$145M$52M$224M$297M$63M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue5%1%5%5%1%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position . 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 $11M), owner earnings is nearer $133M.

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

FY2026 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

  • Does not cover its interest
    Operating income $95M ÷ interest expense $257M
    What this means

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

  • How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $3.3B · 35.2× operating profit
    Heavy net debt
    Cash $9M + ST investments $10M − debt $3.4B
    What this means

    Netting $18M of cash and short-term investments against $3.4B of debt leaves $3.3B owed, about 35.2× a year's operating profit (35.4× 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.

  • Negative, funded by others
    DSO 120 + DIO 11 − DPO 155 days
    What this means

    Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. A negative cycle is a quiet moat: suppliers and customers fund the operation (Buffett's “float”), the company grows on other people's money.

Is it a good business?

  • Not enough data
    Industry peers: median 6%
    What this means

    The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.

  • Thin, recently turned positive
    latest $145M = operating cash $366M − maintenance capex $221M; positive each of the last 3 years, after an earlier loss stretch (10-yr median 1%)
    Industry peers: median 16%
    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 5% of revenue this year, a 1% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $11M of SBC) leaves $133M.

  • Loss, but cash-generative
    Net income ($142M) · cash from operations $366M

    In the filing’s words And the filing leans heavily on adjusted, non-GAAP earnings — steering you off the GAAP figure just where the cash is not backing it. Read the reconciliation in the notes before taking the adjusted number.

    What this means

    The company reported a net loss, so a conversion ratio isn't meaningful. What matters then is whether operations still threw off cash, here, they did.

How is the cash used?

  • Reinvests most of it
    Dividends + buybacks $48M ÷ Owner Earnings $145M
    What this means

    Of $145M Owner Earnings, $48M (33%) went back to shareholders, $0 dividends, $48M buybacks. Net of $11M stock comp, the real buyback was about $36M. 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? 0.82×
    Maintaining
    Capex $221M ÷ depreciation $269M
    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 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 · $3.2B
    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× · 1.05×
    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 · $3.4B vs $34M 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) · 6 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 · 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 Miss
    Earnings +33% over the record · −158%
    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 $-0.62/share (latest year $-1.08), 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, 2017–2026

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

  • Profitable years 4 of 10
    What this means

    Lost money in 6 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.

  • Operating margin 6% → 5% (3-yr avg ends)

    In the filing’s words The filing attributes gains to higher prices, but the margin in the record has not followed — the claim outruns the result here.

    What this means

    Through the cycle the operating margin held roughly steady — about 6% early, 5% lately, median 3%.

  • Worst year 2021 · −7.5% op. margin
    What this means

    Operations went underwater in 2021, understand why before trusting the good years.

  • Share count +1.9%/yr
    What this means

    The share count is rising, dilution works against you on a per-share basis.

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.

In its own filing Raised, but not as a competitor

The filing raises AI among its risks, but in other terms (security, regulation, energy or the like), not as a competitor to its product.

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, 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$774M
  • Cash & short-term investments$16M
  • Receivables$1.0B
  • Inventory$67M
Current liabilities$739M
  • Debt due within a year$11M
  • Accounts payable$928M
Current ratio1.05×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio0.96×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.02×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital$34Mthe cushion left after near-term bills
Debt due this year vs. cash$11M due · $16M cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Mar 31, 2026 balance sheet
Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago−7.4%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters1.1× → 1.0×
Deeper floors
Debt incl. operating leases$3.4B$116M of it operating leases
Deferred revenue$14Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2017–2026

Over the record, the business generated $2.9B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a reinvestor, most operating cash is plowed back into the business.

  • Reinvested$2.6B · 89%
  • Buybacks$50M · 2%
  • Retained (debt / cash)$273M · 9%
  • Returned to owners$50M

    15% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $0 as dividends and $50M as buybacks.

  • Average price paid for buybacks

    Buybacks ran $50M over the span, but the filings don't tag the share count needed to deduce the average price paid.

  • Net change in share count18.2%

    The diluted count rose from 112M to 132M: 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.

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$1.2B28% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired
Against book equitygoodwill is this share of book equity; the rest is the company’s own retained and paid-in capital
Cash spent acquiring$1.6Bover 10 years buying other businesses, against $2.6B of capital spent building

$1.0B written down across 7 years (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2024, 2025, 2026): goodwill the company has already conceded it overpaid for, charged against earnings. That is roughly 62% of the cash it put into acquisitions over the span. A write-down costs no cash (the cash went out when the deal was signed), but it is management marking its own past judgment to market.

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.

  • Insider ownership7.3%

    The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2025 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.

  • Stock-based compensation$11M

    The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 0% of revenue, equal to 12% 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 NGL 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 2017–2026.

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

  • Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?18.2%

    Diluted shares grew 18.2% over 2017–2026, even as the company spent $50M 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 hereAre "one-time" charges a yearly habit?6 of 10 years

    Management took an impairment or write-down in 6 of the last 10 years, $772M in all. Taken across the majority of the record, the "one-time" label is wearing thin — ask whether these are past deals coming due rather than genuinely isolated events. Read it beside the goodwill the company still carries.

And these came back clean
  • Is it less profitable than it was?
  • Did debt outgrow the business?
  • 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.

What an owner would ask, FY2026

read the 10-K →
  • How much of the revenue rides on one buyer?
    ≈$2.5B · 78% of revenue on the largest customers (TTM)
    “During the year ended March 31, 2026, 78% of the revenues of our Water Solutions segment were generated from our ten largest customers of the segment.”verify →
  • Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
    Management names Revenue recognition, Inventory, Acquisitions, Contingencies as critical estimates

    each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →

The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.

Peers, Pipelines & Midstream

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.

CompanyRevenueGross marginOp. marginROICOwner earn. margin
WESWestern Midstream Partners LP Common$3.8B73%43.1%38%
NGLNGL ENERGY PARTNERS LP Common$3.2B14%2.8%1%
CTRICenturi Holdings Inc.$3.0B8%3.1%5%2%
OGSONE Gas$2.6B57%17.9%6%-6%
KNTKKinetik Holdings Inc.$1.8B30%8.1%3%22%
AROCArchrock$1.5B-25%17.8%6%16%
KGSKodiak Gas Services$1.3B28.7%6%6%
AMAntero Midstream Corporation$1.2B56.4%8%70%
Group median22%17.9%11%
IV

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what NGL ENERGY PARTNERS LP Common has delivered.

$
Base

The assumptions

9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.

Enter a price above to run it.

Implied by the price
Owner-earnings growth · ’22→’26−14%/yr
Owner-earnings growth · since FY2021+4%/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 $145M on 132M shares outstanding (a weighted diluted average, the only count this filer tags); net debt $3.2B. 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.

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

Manual order: ← NFLX its page in the Manual NGS →

Industry order: ← NGG the Pipelines & Midstream chapter OKE →