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SUN, Sunoco LP Common
Our fuel distribution operations distribute over 15 billion gallons annually to approximately 11,000 Sunoco and partner branded locations, as well as independent dealers and commercial customers.
In the first quarter of 2025, Sunoco acquired fuel equipment, motor fuel inventory and supply agreements in two separate transactions for total consideration of approximately $17 million.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- What moves the needle
- Gross margin has run about 7.7% and operating margin about 2.8% 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. On a spread this thin the operating result swings hard on small moves in cost or volume — it has ranged from 1.5% to 4.3% over the years, so the cost line is where the needle moves. Read this kind of business on the commodity price, and the cost to lift a barrel. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
The record
Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.
The record, 2016–2025
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2016’16 | 2017’17 | 2018’18 | 2019’19 | 2020’20 | 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | TTMTTMMar 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | |||||||||||
| $10.0B | $11.7B | $17.0B | $16.6B | $10.7B | $17.6B | $25.7B | $23.1B | $22.7B | $25.2B | $30.7B | RevenueRevenue |
| 12% | 9% | 7% | 7% | 10% | 8% | 5% | 6% | 9% | 11% | 12% | Gross marginGross mgn |
| 2% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 0% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev |
| $145M | $229M | $345M | $464M | $417M | $749M | $678M | $635M | $791M | $935M | $1.5B | Operating incomeOp. inc. |
| 1.5% | 2.0% | 2.0% | 2.8% | 3.9% | 4.3% | 2.6% | 2.8% | 3.5% | 3.7% | 4.9% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| ($406M) | $149M | ($207M) | $313M | $212M | $524M | $475M | $394M | $866M | $527M | $964M | Net incomeNet inc. |
| — | — | — | -6% | 10% | 5% | 5% | 8% | 17% | 11% | 9% | Effective tax rateTax rate |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||||||||
| $466M | $303M | $447M | $435M | $502M | $543M | $561M | $600M | $549M | $1.2B | $1.5B | Operating cash flowOp. cash |
| $319M | $169M | $182M | $183M | $189M | $177M | $193M | $187M | $368M | $688M | $818M | DepreciationDeprec. |
| $540M | ($39M) | $460M | ($74M) | $87M | ($174M) | ($121M) | $2M | ($702M) | ($42M) | ($313M) | Working capital & otherWC & other |
| $439M | $177M | $103M | $148M | $124M | $157M | $186M | $215M | $344M | $577M | $675M | CapexCapex |
| 4.4% | 1.5% | 0.6% | 0.9% | 1.2% | 0.9% | 0.7% | 0.9% | 1.5% | 2.3% | 2.2% | Capex / revenueCapex/rev |
| $147M | $126M | $344M | $287M | $378M | $386M | $375M | $385M | $205M | $615M | $815M | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| 1.5% | 1.1% | 2.0% | 1.7% | 3.5% | 2.2% | 1.5% | 1.7% | 0.9% | 2.4% | 2.7% | Owner earnings marginOE mgn |
| $27M | $126M | $344M | $287M | $378M | $386M | $375M | $385M | $205M | $615M | $815M | Free cash flowFCF |
| 0.3% | 1.1% | 2.0% | 1.7% | 3.5% | 2.2% | 1.5% | 1.7% | 0.9% | 2.4% | 2.7% | Free cash flow marginFCF mgn |
| — | $0 | $401M | $5M | $12M | $256M | $318M | $111M | — | — | $111M | AcquisitionsAcquis. |
| — | $0 | $540M | $0 | $0 | — | — | — | — | — | — | BuybacksBuybacks |
| Balance sheet | |||||||||||
| $103M | $28M | $56M | $21M | $97M | $25M | $82M | $29M | $94M | $891M | $899M | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| $539M | $541M | $374M | $399M | $295M | $526M | $890M | $856M | — | — | $3.4B | ReceivablesReceiv. |
| $423M | $426M | $374M | $419M | $382M | $534M | $821M | $889M | $1.1B | $2.4B | $2.3B | InventoryInvent. |
| $616M | $559M | $412M | $445M | $267M | $515M | $966M | $828M | — | — | $3.4B | Accounts payablePayables |
| $346M | $408M | $336M | $373M | $410M | $545M | $745M | $917M | $1.1B | $2.4B | $2.4B | Operating working capitalOper. WC |
| $1.3B | $4.5B | $905M | $924M | $847M | $1.2B | $2.0B | $1.9B | $2.5B | $5.5B | $6.8B | Current assetsCur. assets |
| $1.1B | $1.2B | $865M | $744M | $653M | $890M | $1.4B | $1.4B | $1.9B | $4.0B | $4.9B | Current liabilitiesCur. liab. |
| 1.2× | 3.7× | 1.0× | 1.2× | 1.3× | 1.3× | 1.4× | 1.4× | 1.3× | 1.4× | 1.4× | Current ratioCurr. ratio |
| $1.6B | $1.4B | $1.6B | $1.6B | $1.6B | $1.6B | $1.6B | $1.6B | $1.5B | $3.0B | $3.1B | GoodwillGoodwill |
| $8.7B | $8.3B | $4.9B | $5.4B | $5.3B | $5.8B | $6.8B | $6.8B | $14.4B | $28.4B | $30.3B | Total assetsAssets |
| $4.6B | $4.3B | $3.0B | $3.1B | $3.1B | $3.3B | $3.6B | $3.6B | $7.5B | $13.4B | $13.9B | Total debtDebt |
| $4.5B | $4.3B | $3.0B | $3.1B | $3.0B | $3.3B | $3.5B | $3.6B | $7.4B | $12.5B | $13.0B | Net debt / (cash)Net debt |
| 0.8× | 1.1× | 2.4× | 2.7× | 2.4× | 4.6× | 3.7× | 2.9× | 2.0× | 1.7× | 2.4× | Interest coverageInt. cov. |
| 0.1% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% | Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev |
| $227M | $387M | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | $387M | Goodwill written downGW imp. |
The record, charted
FY2016–2025Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.
Owner earnings vs. net income
Owner earningsNet incomeThe accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.
Where the cash went
ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedBeyond op. cashEach 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.
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 $527M of profit into $615M of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.
| FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reported net income | $527M | $866M | $394M | $475M | $524M |
| Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back | +$688M | +$368M | +$187M | +$193M | +$177M |
| Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost | +$19M | +$17M | +$17M | +$14M | +$16M |
| Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items | −$42M | −$702M | +$2M | −$121M | −$174M |
| Cash from operations | $1.2B | $549M | $600M | $561M | $543M |
| Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow | −$577M | −$344M | −$215M | −$186M | −$157M |
| Owner earnings | $615M | $205M | $385M | $375M | $386M |
| Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue | 2% | 1% | 2% | 1% | 2% |
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 $19M), owner earnings is nearer $596M.
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.
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
Will it survive?
- ThinOperating income $935M ÷ interest expense $541M
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? $12.5B · 13.4× operating profitHeavy net debtCash $891M − debt $13.4B
What this means
Netting $891M of cash and short-term investments against $13.4B of debt leaves $12.5B owed, about 13.4× a year's operating profit (14.3× on the gross debt, before the cash). It also holds $26M in longer-dated marketable securities; counting those, it sits at $12.5B of net debt. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
- TightDSO 12 + DIO 39 − DPO 13 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?
- Not enough dataIndustry peers: median 8%
What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
- Thin through the cycle10-yr median margin, range 1%–4%; latest $615M = operating cash $1.2B − maintenance capex $577MIndustry peers: median 2%
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 2% of revenue this year, a 2% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $19M of SBC) leaves $596M.
- Cash-backedCash from ops $1.2B ÷ net income $527M
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?
- Reinvests most of itDividends + buybacks $0 ÷ Owner Earnings $615M
What this means
Of $615M Owner Earnings, $0 (0%) went back to shareholders, $0 dividends, $0 buybacks. 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? 0.84×MaintainingCapex $577M ÷ depreciation $688M
What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.
Graham’s defensive tests · 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 PassRevenue ≥ $2B · $25.2B
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 MissCurrent ratio ≥ 2× · 1.38×
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 MissDebt ≤ working capital · $13.4B vs $1.5B 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 MissA 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 MissUninterrupted 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 —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 $7.01/share (latest year $6.20), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.
Durability & moat, 2016–2025
Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.
- Profitable years 8 of 10
What this means
Lost money in 2 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
- Operating margin 2% → 3% (3-yr avg ends)
In the filing’s words Input costs rose and the filing says it recovered them in price — consistent with the margin holding here.
What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about 2% early to 3% lately, median 3% — pricing power intact or improving.
- Owner earnings growth +13%/yr
What this means
Owner earnings grew about 13% a year over the record.
- Worst year 2016 · 1.5% op. margin
What this means
Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.
Does AI threaten the moat?
Low contestabilityThe moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.
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 the latest quarter, Mar 31, 2026Can 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.
- Cash & short-term investments$899M
- Receivables$3.4B
- Inventory$2.3B
- Other current assets$161M
- Debt due within a year$12M
- Accounts payable$3.4B
- Other current liabilities$1.5B
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.
Bars scaled to the largest single year; “later” is everything due after 2030, shown apart since it dwarfs the years.
Against what the business has and earns
Cash on hand as of Mar 31, 2026 plus a year’s owner earnings comes to $1.5B against the $954M due in the twelve months after the Dec 31, 2025 schedule: 1.6 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.
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.
True leverage: debt plus leases
Counting the leases the way Buffett does, the fixed claims on this business come to $14.9B, of which the leases are 10%. 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 $5.6B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a balanced allocator, splitting cash between the business, owners, and the balance sheet.
- Reinvested$2.5B · 44%
- Buybacks$540M · 10%
- Retained (debt / cash)$2.6B · 46%
- Returned to owners$540M
17% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $0 as dividends and $540M as buybacks.
- Source of fundingOperating cash
Operating cash covered reinvestment and returns; over the span debt rose $9.4B and cash and short-term investments rose $796M.
- Average price paid for buybacks—
Buybacks ran $540M over the span, but the filings don't tag the share count needed to deduce the average price paid.
- Net change in share count—
No continuous share count across the span.
- 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 retained8%
Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($2.3B over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $196M, so each retained $1 added about 0.08 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 recordGoodwill 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.
$614M written down across 2 years (2016, 2017): goodwill the company has already conceded it overpaid for, charged against earnings. That is roughly 56% 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
From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid.
- Stock-based compensation$19M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 0% 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 Sunoco LP Common is a good business, the question is what would make owning it a mistake, and whether those marks are in the record. Disconfirming tests across 2016–2025.
2 of the 5 tests turned up something to look into; the other 3 came back clean.
- Look hereDid debt outgrow the business?$4.6B → $13.9B
Debt rose from $4.6B to $13.9B while owner earnings went from about $206M to $402M — about 22 years of owner earnings in debt then, about 35 now: measured against what the business earns, the balance sheet carries more debt than it did. Debt raised for buybacks or deals rather than growth is the kind that bites in a downturn.
- Look hereDid receivables and inventory outpace sales?10% → 19% of sales
Receivables and inventory grew from $962M to $5.8B while revenue grew 208%: working capital is climbing faster than sales (10% of revenue then, 19% now). That can mean customers paying slower, stock building up, or revenue pulled forward. The filing's cash-flow and receivables notes say which.
- Is it less profitable than it was?
- Did reported profit become cash?
- 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.
What an owner would ask, FY2025
read the 10-K →- Which reported numbers are a judgment call?Management names Income taxes, 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, Refining & Marketing
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| COPConocoPhillips | $51.8B | 57% | 29.3% | 13% | 14% |
| PBFPBF Energy | $29.3B | 4% | 2.4% | 9% | 2% |
| SUNSunoco LP Common | $25.2B | 8% | 2.8% | — | 2% |
| SUNCSunocoCorp LLC Common | $25.2B | 9% | 3.5% | — | 2% |
| HESHess Corporation | $12.9B | — | 2.9% | 1% | -5% |
| DKDelek US Holdings | $10.7B | 4% | 1.9% | 7% | 2% |
| IEPIcahn Enterprises L.P. | $9.7B | — | -5.4% | 2% | 3% |
| CVICVR Energy Inc. | $7.2B | 5% | 2.5% | 9% | 3% |
| Group median | — | 7% | 2.6% | — | 2% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFType today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what Sunoco LP Common has delivered.
Sunoco LP Common’s latest year runs above its own through-cycle margin — the reported figure may flatter a peak. So the tool opens on the through-cycle base, Graham’s averaging cutting both ways; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.
Through the cycle, Sunoco LP Common earns about $428M on its 1.7% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 2.4% 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.
—
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.
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
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 $815M on 85M diluted shares; net debt $13.0B. 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 ($675M) runs well above depreciation ($818M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $913M, 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.
Manual order: ← SUI its page in the Manual SUNB →
Industry order: ← SU the Refining & Marketing chapter SUNC →