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NRP, Natural Resource Partners LP

Coal & Consumable Fuels capital-intensive Cyclical

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 10-K

NRP · Natural Resource Partners LP

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025

$232M

−16.6% YoY · 2% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · FY2025, with 5-yr average

Revenue $232M 5-yr avg $225M

Operating margin 62.1% 5-yr avg 66.7%

Owner-earnings margin 71% 5-yr avg 89%

Free cash flow margin 71% 5-yr avg 89%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

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

Situation: 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: Operating margin has run about 80% 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 margin is cyclical, swinging between −36% and 296% 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. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on concentrated dependence, 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, 2014–2024

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2014’14	2016’16	2017’17	2018’18	2019’19	2020’20	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24
										Income statement
$60M	$250M	$243M	$203M	$210M	$120M	$185M	$307M	$279M	$232M	RevenueRevenue
12%	7%	8%	8%	8%	12%	9%	7%	9%	11%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
$176M	$181M	$177M	$193M	$51M	($44M)	$148M	$305M	$293M	$199M	Operating incomeOp. inc.
295.7%	72.4%	72.7%	95.0%	24.4%	−36.5%	79.8%	99.4%	105.0%	85.7%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$109M	$97M	$89M	$140M	($24M)	($85M)	$77M	$238M	$201M	$155M	Net incomeNet inc.
										Cash flow & returns
$211M	$108M	$127M	$189M	$137M	$89M	$122M	$267M	$311M	$248M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$59M	$29M	$23M	$22M	$15M	$9M	$19M	$23M	$18M	$16M	DepreciationDeprec.
$43M	($19M)	$15M	$26M	$144M	$161M	$21M	$54K	$81M	$67M	Working capital & otherWC & other
$2M	$28K	$0	$0	—	$0	$0	$118K	$10K	$0	CapexCapex
4.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	—	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$208M	$108M	$127M	$189M	—	$89M	$122M	$267M	$311M	$248M	Owner earningsOwner earn.
349.7%	43.1%	52.4%	93.2%	—	74.3%	65.8%	86.9%	111.6%	106.9%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$208M	$108M	$127M	$189M	—	$89M	$122M	$267M	$311M	$248M	Free cash flowFCF
349.7%	43.1%	52.4%	93.2%	—	74.3%	65.8%	86.9%	111.6%	106.9%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
										Balance sheet
$49M	$40M	$27M	$102M	$98M	$100M	$136M	$39M	$12M	$30M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$66M	$43M	$24M	$32M	$31M	$12M	$25M	$43M	$41M	$31M	ReceivablesReceiv.
$6M	$7M	$8M	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	InventoryInvent.
$22M	$6M	$1M	$2M	$1M	$1M	$2M	$2M	$885K	$909K	Accounts payablePayables
$50M	$44M	$31M	$30M	$30M	$11M	$23M	$41M	$40M	$31M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$136M	$105M	$91M	$243M	$132M	$117M	$163M	$84M	$55M	$64M	Current assetsCur. assets
$148M	$189M	$121M	$149M	$63M	$61M	$64M	$60M	$50M	$32M	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
0.9×	0.6×	0.8×	1.6×	2.1×	1.9×	2.5×	1.4×	1.1×	2.0×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$2.4B	$1.4B	$1.4B	$1.3B	$1.1B	$922M	$954M	$877M	$798M	$773M	Total assetsAssets
$1.5B	$1.1B	$809M	$673M	$516M	$471M	$434M	$168M	$155M	$142M	Total debtDebt
$1.4B	$1.1B	$782M	$571M	$418M	$372M	$298M	$129M	$143M	$112M	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
2.2×	2.0×	2.2×	2.7×	1.1×	-1.1×	3.8×	11.6×	20.7×	12.8×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
—	0.5%	0.0%	0.7%	1.1%	3.0%	2.2%	1.9%	3.9%	4.9%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
										Per share
15.1M	16.3M	14.6M	13.5M	12.3M	12.3M	22.2M	19.7M	16.1M	13.6M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$3.94	$15.34	$16.59	$15.03	$17.16	$9.80	$8.34	$15.62	$17.32	$17.03	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$7.21	$5.94	$6.06	$10.34	$-1.99	$-6.92	$3.48	$12.14	$12.47	$11.35	EPS (diluted)EPS
$13.79	$6.62	$8.69	$14.01	—	$7.28	$5.49	$13.57	$19.32	$18.21	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$13.79	$6.62	$8.69	$14.01	—	$7.28	$5.49	$13.57	$19.32	$18.21	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.16	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	—	$0.00	$0.00	$0.01	$0.00	$0.00	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh

Share counts before 2017 are restated ×2 for a stock split, so per-share figures sit on one basis.

Share counts before 2019 are restated ×1/1.5 for a stock split, so per-share figures sit on one basis.

The diluted share count moved ×1.81 into 2021 — 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

	10-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+15.7%/yr	−0.2%/yr
Owner earnings / share	+2.8%/yr	+25.8%/yr (4-yr)
EPS	+4.6%/yr	—

The record, charted

FY2014–2024

Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked. Share counts on the current split basis.

Share count

14Mpeak FY2021

Net debt ÷ owner earnings

0.4×peak FY2016

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

$248Mowner earningsvs.$155Mnet incomelow FY2020

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetained

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

FY2014FY2024

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2020–FY2024cash-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 2024 the business turned $155M of profit into $248M 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$155M

Owner earnings$248M · 107% of revenue

	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021	FY2020
Reported net income	$155M	$201M	$238M	$77M	($85M)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$16M	+$18M	+$23M	+$19M	+$9M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$11M	+$11M	+$6M	+$4M	+$4M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	+$67M	+$81M	+$54K	+$21M	+$161M
Cash from operations	$248M	$311M	$267M	$122M	$89M
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow	—	−$10K	−$118K	—	—
Owner earnings	$248M	$311M	$267M	$122M	$89M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	107%	112%	87%	66%	74%

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 $237M.

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? 18.1×

Comfortable

Operating income $144M ÷ interest expense $8M

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? $837M · 5.8× operating profit

Heavy net debt

Cash $30M − debt $867M

What this means
Netting $30M of cash and short-term investments against $867M of debt leaves $837M owed, about 5.8× a year's operating profit (6.0× 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 —

Not enough data

Industry peers: median 15%

What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
Owner-earnings margin 87%

High through the cycle

9-yr median margin, range 43%–350%; latest $166M = operating cash $166M − maintenance capex $0

Industry peers: median 14%

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 71% of revenue this year, a 87% median across 9 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $11M of SBC) leaves $155M.
Are earnings backed by cash? 1.22×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $166M ÷ net income $136M

In the filing’s words The filing leans on adjusted, non-GAAP earnings, but the GAAP profit is itself cash-backed — the adjustments are not papering over a cash shortfall here.

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? 0.00×

Harvesting

Capex $0 ÷ depreciation $15M

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 Miss

Revenue ≥ $2B · $232M

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 Near

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 1.85×

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 · $867M vs $28M 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) · 2 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 Pass

Earnings +33% over the record · +102%

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 $14.95/share (latest year $10.29), 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, 2014–2024

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

Profitable years 8 of 10

What this means
Lost money in 2 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
Operating margin 147% → 97% (3-yr avg ends)

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin slipped — about 147% early to 97% lately, median 80% — competition or costs are biting in.
Owner earnings growth +6%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 6% a year over the record.
Worst year 2020 · −36.5% op. margin

What this means
Operations went underwater in 2020, 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.
How management talks about it Owner’s terms

What this means
The record and the register agree: capital is compounding and the filing reasons in an owner’s terms — per-share value, return on capital, the long term — not a promoter’s.

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$60M

Cash & short-term investments$32M
Receivables$27M
Inventory$10M

Current liabilities$29M

Debt due within a year$14M
Accounts payable$2M
Other current liabilities$12M

Current ratio2.09×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio1.75×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio1.10×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$31Mthe cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$14M due · $32M cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Mar 31, 2026 balance sheet

Current ratio, recent quarters2.4× → 2.1×

Deeper floors

Net current asset value($79M)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$60Mno operating-lease liability tagged this quarter, so debt alone

Deferred revenue$66Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2014–2024

Over the record, the business generated $1.7B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a deleverager, a meaningful share of cash went to paying down debt.

Reinvested$3M · 0%
Retained (debt / cash)$1.7B · 100%

Source of fundingOperating cash
Operating cash covered reinvestment and returns; over the span debt fell $1.3B and cash and short-term investments fell $19M.
Net change in share count−9.6%
The diluted count fell from 15M to 14M, so the buybacks outran the stock issued to staff.
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 retained13%
Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($1.0B over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $128M, so each retained $1 added about 0.13 of yearly owner earnings. Buffett's test, run on owner earnings instead of market value.

Buybacks are gross of stock issued to staff; the share-count line above is the net of that, the figure that decides whether owners gained. The average price paid blends a year of purchases (and any accelerated repurchase), so it is close, not exact. The record of where the cash went and on what terms.

Acquisitions & goodwill

from the balance sheet & the 10-year cash-flow record

Goodwill grows only when a company acquires and falls only when it concedes it overpaid. The size of that bet, the cash put into buying rather than building, and how much has already been written off.

Goodwill & intangibles$12M2% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired

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

Cash spent acquiring$169Mover 10 years buying other businesses, against $3M of capital spent building

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

Goodwill, acquired intangibles and equity from the latest balance sheet; acquisition spend and write-downs summed across the 10-year record, from the company's own filings.

Management, ownership & pay

From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid.

Stock-based compensation$11M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 5% of revenue, equal to 8% 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 Natural Resource Partners LP 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 2014–2024.

1 of the 6 tests turned up something to look into; the other 5 came back clean.

Look hereAre "one-time" charges a yearly habit?10 of 10 years
Management took an impairment or write-down in 10 of the last 10 years, $358M in all. A charge taken almost every year is not one-time; it is the business — past deals coming due, and an admission the assets were worth less than what was paid. Munger's rule: when the "one-time" keeps happening, it is the business. Read it beside the goodwill the company still carries.

And these 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?

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, FY2025

read the 10-K →

Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
Management names Revenue recognition, Acquisitions 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, Coal & Consumable Fuels

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
CNRCore Natural Resources Inc.	$4.2B	—	4.6%	4%	14%
BTUPeabody Energy Corporation Common Stock	$3.9B	—	5.9%	17%	6%
ARLPAlliance Resource Partners L.P. Common	$2.2B	—	18.0%	—	21%
AMRAlpha Metallurgical Resources Inc.	$2.1B	—	9.6%	15%	4%
HCCWarrior Met Coal Inc.	$1.3B	46%	30.2%	35%	29%
METCRamaco Resources Inc.	$537M	21%	6.5%	14%	9%
NCNACCO Industries Inc.	$277M	13%	21.3%	12%	21%
NRPNatural Resource Partners LP	$232M	—	82.8%	—	87%
Group median	—	—	13.8%	—	17%

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 Natural Resource Partners LP has delivered.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, Natural Resource Partners LP earns about $166M on its 71.4% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 71.4% 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 ($166M) Net of stock comp (−$11M)

—

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 · ’20→’24+28%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · ’14→’24+6%/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 $166M on 13M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-05-06; net debt $837M. 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 NRP against another business →

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

Manual order: ← NRIX its page in the Manual NSA →

Industry order: ← NC the Coal & Consumable Fuels chapter UEC →