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SWX, Southwest Gas Holdings

Gas Utilities capital-intensive Capital build-outCyclical

Southwest Gas provide regulated natural gas delivery services to customers in portions of Arizona, Nevada, and California to meet heating, cooking, and other household needs in residential communities across these territories, as well as to facilitate the ongoing business operations of commercial and industrial customers.

After the deconsolidation of Centuri in August 2025, the business is solely comprised of the Natural Gas Distribution segment.

The Company, through its operating wholly-owned subsidiary Southwest Gas, engages in the business of purchasing, distributing, and transporting natural gas for its customers.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K

SWX · Southwest Gas Holdings

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025

$1.9B

−21.6% YoY · −10% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $1.8B 5-yr avg $3.7B

Operating margin 27.0% 5-yr avg 11.2%

ROIC 5% 5-yr avg 4%

Owner-earnings margin 5% 5-yr avg 10%

Free cash flow margin −24% 5-yr avg −5%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

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

Situation: Capital build-out. Capital spending has surged to 42% of sales, today's earnings are charged less depreciation than tomorrow's will be. 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 50% and operating margin about 12% through the cycle, a spread the cycle sets more than the company does. The margin is cyclical, swinging between −0.5% and 24% 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 24% 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 rarely cleared the cost of capital (median 6%, above 15% in 0 of 10 years). By owner earnings: roughly 8% of revenue reaches owners as cash, though it swings, and customers and suppliers fund the business through negative working capital. The cycle and the balance sheet decide this one; the worst year tells more than the median, and the rest is in the 10-K.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 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
$2.5B	$2.5B	$2.9B	$3.1B	$3.3B	$3.7B	$5.0B	$5.4B	$2.5B	$1.9B	$1.8B	RevenueRevenue
58%	55%	52%	50%	48%	47%	49%	52%	—	—	—	Gross marginGross mgn
$315M	$343M	$357M	$372M	$423M	$370M	($24M)	$293M	$406M	$474M	$480M	Operating incomeOp. inc.
12.8%	13.5%	12.4%	11.9%	12.8%	10.0%	−0.5%	5.4%	16.4%	24.4%	27.0%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$152M	$194M	$182M	$214M	$232M	$201M	($203M)	$151M	$199M	$440M	$464M	Net incomeNet inc.
34%	25%	25%	21%	22%	16%	—	16%	14%	18%	19%	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$601M	$370M	$529M	$500M	$626M	$111M	$407M	$509M	$1.4B	$556M	$427M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$289M	$251M	$249M	$303M	$332M	$371M	$470M	$295M	$303M	$331M	$337M	DepreciationDeprec.
$154M	($86M)	$91M	($24M)	$55M	($470M)	$131M	$57M	$842M	($229M)	($388M)	Working capital & otherWC & other
$530M	$624M	$766M	$938M	$825M	$716M	$859M	$766M	$847M	$808M	$853M	CapexCapex
21.5%	24.5%	26.6%	30.1%	25.0%	19.4%	17.3%	14.1%	34.2%	41.6%	48.0%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$311M	$119M	$280M	$197M	$294M	($260M)	($63M)	$214M	$1.1B	$225M	$90M	Owner earningsOwner earn.
12.7%	4.7%	9.7%	6.3%	8.9%	−7.1%	−1.3%	3.9%	42.5%	11.6%	5.1%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$71M	($254M)	($237M)	($438M)	($199M)	($604M)	($452M)	($257M)	$509M	($252M)	($427M)	Free cash flowFCF
2.9%	−10.0%	−8.2%	−14.0%	−6.0%	−16.4%	−9.1%	−4.7%	20.6%	−13.0%	−24.0%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$17M	$94M	$251M	$48M	$0	$2.4B	$19M	$0	$0	—	$0	AcquisitionsAcquis.
$83M	$92M	$100M	$116M	$126M	$138M	$161M	$175M	$178M	$179M	$179M	Dividends paidDiv. paid
6%	7%	6%	6%	6%	4%	-0%	3%	5%	6%	5%	ROICROIC
9%	11%	8%	9%	9%	7%	-7%	5%	6%	12%	11%	Return on equityROE
4%	6%	4%	4%	4%	2%	−12%	−1%	1%	7%	7%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$28M	$44M	$85M	$50M	$83M	$223M	$123M	$107M	$315M	$577M	$485M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$285M	$347M	$414M	$474M	$522M	$707M	$866M	$887M	$203M	$171M	$169M	ReceivablesReceiv.
$185M	$228M	$249M	$239M	$231M	$353M	$662M	$347M	$191M	$226M	$122M	Accounts payablePayables
$100M	$119M	$165M	$235M	$291M	$354M	$204M	$540M	$12M	($55M)	$47M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$533M	$657M	$840M	$860M	$871M	$1.6B	$3.7B	$1.9B	$1.5B	$1.2B	$1.1B	Current assetsCur. assets
$628M	$816M	$939M	$1.1B	$912M	$3.1B	$3.4B	$1.7B	$1.8B	$880M	$730M	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
0.8×	0.8×	0.9×	0.8×	1.0×	0.5×	1.1×	1.1×	0.8×	1.4×	1.4×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$140M	$179M	$359M	$343M	$345M	$1.8B	$787M	$790M	$11M	$11M	$11M	GoodwillGoodwill
$5.6B	$6.2B	$7.4B	$8.2B	$8.7B	$12.8B	$13.2B	$9.3B	$12.1B	$10.4B	$10.4B	Total assetsAssets
$1.6B	$1.8B	$2.1B	$2.5B	$2.8B	$4.4B	$4.4B	$4.7B	$3.5B	$3.5B	$3.5B	Total debtDebt
$1.6B	$1.8B	$2.1B	$2.4B	$2.7B	$4.2B	$4.3B	$4.5B	$3.2B	$2.9B	$3.0B	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
4.3×	4.4×	3.7×	3.4×	3.8×	3.1×	-0.1×	1.0×	1.4×	—	1.6×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$1.7B	$1.8B	$2.3B	$2.5B	$2.7B	$3.0B	$3.1B	$3.3B	$3.5B	$3.6B	$4.1B	Shareholders’ equityEquity
0.2%	0.4%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.5%	0.8%	0.8%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
											Per share
47.8M	48.0M	49.5M	54.3M	56.1M	59.3M	65.6M	71.0M	72.0M	72.3M	72.6M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$51.46	$53.11	$58.21	$57.44	$58.83	$62.11	$75.66	$76.55	$34.36	$26.82	$24.52	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$3.18	$4.04	$3.68	$3.94	$4.14	$3.39	$-3.10	$2.13	$2.76	$6.08	$6.40	EPS (diluted)EPS
$6.51	$2.48	$5.65	$3.63	$5.24	$-4.38	$-0.96	$3.01	$14.61	$3.12	$1.24	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$1.48	$-5.29	$-4.79	$-8.06	$-3.55	$-10.20	$-6.89	$-3.62	$7.07	$-3.48	$-5.88	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$1.74	$1.92	$2.03	$2.14	$2.24	$2.33	$2.45	$2.46	$2.47	$2.47	$2.46	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$11.07	$13.00	$15.48	$17.27	$14.71	$12.08	$13.11	$10.79	$11.75	$11.17	$11.76	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$34.79	$37.81	$45.52	$46.14	$47.70	$49.85	$46.66	$46.63	$48.65	$50.42	$56.52	Book value / shareBVPS

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

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	−7.0%/yr	−14.5%/yr
Owner earnings / share	−7.9%/yr	−9.9%/yr
EPS	+7.5%/yr	+8.0%/yr
Dividends / share	+3.9%/yr	+2.0%/yr
Capital spending / share	+0.1%/yr	−5.4%/yr
Book value / share	+4.2%/yr	+1.1%/yr

The record, charted

FY2016–2025

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

Share count

72Mpeak FY2025

ROIC

6%low FY2022

Gross margin

52%low FY2021

Net debt ÷ owner earnings

13.0×peak FY2023

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

$225Mowner earningsvs.$440Mnet incomelow FY2021

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.

FY2016FY2025

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 $225M of owner earnings, the operating cash left after the $331M it takes just to hold its position. It put $477M more into growth; free cash flow, after that spending, was ($252M).

Reported net income$440M

Owner earnings$225M · 12% of revenue

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	$440M	$199M	$151M	($203M)	$201M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$331M	+$303M	+$295M	+$470M	+$371M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$15M	+$11M	+$6M	+$9M	+$9M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$229M	+$842M	+$57M	+$131M	−$470M
Cash from operations	$556M	$1.4B	$509M	$407M	$111M
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume	−$331M	−$303M	−$295M	−$470M	−$371M
Owner earnings	$225M	$1.1B	$214M	($63M)	($260M)
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still	−$477M	−$543M	−$470M	−$389M	−$345M
Free cash flow	($252M)	$509M	($257M)	($452M)	($604M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	12%	43%	4%	-1%	-7%

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 $331M, roughly its depreciation, the rate its assets wear out). The other $477M 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 $15M), owner earnings is nearer $211M.

Much of fiscal 2025's profit didn't arrive as operating cash; it sits in “working capital & other” above. That can be a real inventory or timing swing, or profit that doesn't run through operating cash at all: a heavy tax year, equity-method earnings, or investment income booked through investing. For a year like this, owner earnings understates the cash earned; the full cash-flow statement carries the rest.

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? 1.6×

Thin

Operating income $474M ÷ interest expense $297M

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? $2.9B · 6.2× operating profit

Heavy net debt

Cash $577M − debt $3.5B

What this means
Netting $577M of cash and short-term investments against $3.5B of debt leaves $2.9B owed, about 6.2× a year's operating profit (7.4× 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.
How long is cash tied up? -2d

Negative, funded by others

DSO 32 + DIO 0 − DPO 34 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. (Little or no inventory, a services / asset-light model, so the inventory leg is ~0.)

Is it a good business?

Return on invested capital 6%

Below average through the cycle

10-yr median, range -0%–7%; 6% latest = NOPAT $389M ÷ invested capital $6.6B

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 10 years (it ran 6% 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 6%

Solid through the cycle

10-yr median margin, range -7%–43%; latest $225M = operating cash $556M − maintenance capex $331M

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 12% of revenue this year, a 6% median across 10 years. It chose to put $477M more into growth, so free cash flow this year was ($252M) — the gap is investment, not weakness. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $15M of SBC) leaves $211M.
Are earnings backed by cash? 1.26×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $556M ÷ net income $440M

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? 79%

Returns about half

Dividends + buybacks $179M ÷ Owner Earnings $225M

What this means
Of $225M Owner Earnings, $179M (79%) went back to shareholders, $179M 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? 2.44×

Expanding

Capex $808M ÷ depreciation $331M

What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.

Graham’s defensive tests · 2 of 6 met

Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.

Adequate size Near

Revenue ≥ $2B · $1.9B

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× · 1.36×

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 · $3.5B vs $312M WC

What this means
Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.
Earnings stability Near

A profit every year (10-yr record) · 1 loss year

What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
Dividend record Pass

Uninterrupted dividends · paid every year (10)

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 · +49%

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 $3.64/share (latest year $6.08), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $50.40/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 9 of 10

What this means
Lost money in 1 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
Return on capital ≥ 15% 0 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 13% → 15% (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 13% early to 15% lately, median 12% — pricing power intact or improving.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC 3%

What this means
Reinvested capital came back at only a modest incremental return — near the cost of capital, where extra growth adds little per dollar. The record shows whether it is a soft stretch or a thinning moat.
Owner earnings growth +13%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 13% a year over the record.
Worst year 2022 · −0.5% op. margin

What this means
Operations went underwater in 2022, understand why before trusting the good years.
Share count +4.7%/yr

What this means
The share count is rising, dilution works against you on a per-share basis.
Dividend record rising

What this means
Paid and raised the dividend across the record, the continuity Graham prized.

Does AI threaten the moat?

Low contestability

The moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.

AI is unlikely to contest a moat that is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded; here it reads more as a cost tool than a threat.

Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Current Position

as of 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$1.1B

Cash & short-term investments$485M
Receivables$169M
Other current assets$404M

Current liabilities$730M

Debt due within a year$75M
Accounts payable$122M
Other current liabilities$533M

Current ratio1.45×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio1.45×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.66×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$328Mthe cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$75M due · $485M 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−21.6%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters1.6× → 1.4×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$4.1Bequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Debt incl. operating leases$3.5Bno operating-lease liability tagged this quarter, so debt alone

Deferred revenue$68Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

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 reinvestor, most operating cash is plowed back into the business.

Reinvested$7.7B · 138%
Dividends$1.3B · 24%

Returned to owners$1.3B
57% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $1.3B as dividends and $0 as buybacks.
Source of funding−$3.5B
Reinvestment and shareholder returns ran $3.5B beyond the operating cash the business generated, so the gap was financed off the balance sheet: debt rose from $1.6B to $3.5B.
Net change in share count51.8%
The diluted count rose from 48M to 73M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
Dividend record$2.47/sh
Paid in 10 of the years on record, the per-share dividend growing about 4% a year. It was never cut over the span.
Return on what it retained63%
Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($415M over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $261M, so each retained $1 added about 0.63 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$11M0% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired

Against book equity0%goodwill is this share of book equity; the rest is the company’s own retained and paid-in capital

Cash spent acquiring$2.8Bover 10 years buying other businesses, against $7.7B 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

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	Ms. Haller	$5.7M	$6.4M	($260M)
2022	Ms. Haller	$4.4M	$3.6M	($63M)
2022	Ms. Haller	$6.1M	$1.7M	($63M)
2023	Ms. Haller	$7.1M	$5.8M	$214M
2024	Ms. Haller	$8.2M	$7.2M	$1.1B
2025	Ms. Haller	$10.0M	$11.1M	$225M

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.

Stock-based compensation$15M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 1% of revenue, equal to 3% 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 Southwest Gas Holdings 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.

1 of the 5 tests turned up something to look into; the other 4 came back clean.

Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?51.8%
Diluted shares grew 51.8% over 2016–2025. Owners were diluted on net; each share owns less of the business than it did. Read the buyback line beside this one, not on its own.

And these came back clean

Is it less profitable than it was?
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 Pension & retirement, Income taxes 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, 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
CTRICenturi Holdings Inc.	$3.0B	8%	3.1%	5%	2%
SRSpire	$2.5B	53%	18.5%	6%	12%
NFGNational Fuel Gas	$2.2B	86%	31.4%	11%	27%
NJRNew Jersey Resources	$2.0B	37%	12.5%	7%	1%
SWXSouthwest Gas Holdings	$1.9B	51%	12.6%	6%	8%
KNTKKinetik Holdings Inc.	$1.8B	30%	8.1%	3%	22%
AROCArchrock	$1.5B	-25%	17.8%	6%	16%
CPKChesapeake Utilities Corporation	$930M	—	22.3%	7%	16%
Group median	—	37%	15.2%	6%	14%

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 Southwest Gas Holdings has delivered.

Southwest Gas Holdings’s latest year shows negative owner earnings, the mark of a build-out: total capital spending outruns the cash the business throws off today. So the tool opens on the steady-state base (maintenance capex in place of the build-out spend), the cash it would earn at rest; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.

Today’s price $

Base Normalize · through-cycle ($247K) Net of stock comp (−$14M) Steady-state · maintenance capex ($96M)

—

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 · ’16→’25+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 ($427M) on 72M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-05-01; net debt $3.0B. The base opens on the steady-state figure (the latest year is negative on total capex mid-build-out); clear Steady-state to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. Capex ($853M) runs well above depreciation ($337M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $96M, 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 SWX against another business →

The owners of SWX: the meeting and the votes →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Southwest Gas Holdings (SWX), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/SWX, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← SWKS its page in the Manual SXC →

Industry order: ← SREA the Gas Utilities chapter UGI →