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TEN, Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd

Marine Shipping capital-intensive Cyclical

Tsakos Energy Navigation Limited is a leading provider of international seaborne crude oil and petroleum product transportation services.

The tankers operate in markets that have historically exhibited both cyclical and seasonal variations in demand and corresponding fluctuations in charter rates.

Tanker markets are typically stronger in the winter months because of increased oil consumption in the northern hemisphere.

Latest annual: FY2025 20-F · US listing is the ordinary share

TEN · Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025

$799M

−0.7% YoY · 4% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $799M 5-yr avg $780M

Operating margin 31.6% 5-yr avg 23.6%

ROIC 6% 5-yr avg 6%

Owner-earnings margin 16% 5-yr avg 17%

Free cash flow margin −1% 5-yr avg 2%

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 15% through the cycle, a solid margin the cost base and competition set as much as the price does. The margin is cyclical, swinging between −22% and 44% 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 35% of sales, well above depreciation, so the return earned on what it sinks into that plant weighs as much as the margin. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, 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 3%, above 15% in 0 of 10 years). By owner earnings: roughly 17% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. 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	TTMTTMDec 2025
											Income statement
$482M	$529M	$530M	$597M	$644M	$546M	$860M	$890M	$804M	$799M	$799M	RevenueRevenue
$90M	$63M	($28M)	$86M	$97M	($120M)	$256M	$391M	$279M	$252M	$252M	Operating incomeOp. inc.
18.6%	12.0%	−5.3%	14.4%	15.0%	−21.9%	29.8%	44.0%	34.6%	31.6%	31.6%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$56M	$9M	($101M)	$14M	$27M	($151M)	$208M	$305M	$182M	$165M	$165M	Net incomeNet inc.
											Cash flow & returns
$170M	$171M	$74M	$184M	$205M	$53M	$289M	$395M	$308M	$298M	$298M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$113M	$139M	$147M	$139M	$137M	$143M	$141M	$144M	$160M	$170M	$170M	DepreciationDeprec.
$439K	$23M	$28M	$31M	$41M	$60M	($61M)	($54M)	($34M)	($37M)	($37M)	Working capital & otherWC & other
—	—	—	—	—	$6M	$302M	$164M	$490M	$302M	$302M	CapexCapex
—	—	—	—	—	1.0%	35.0%	18.4%	60.9%	37.8%	37.8%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
—	—	—	—	—	$47M	$148M	$232M	$148M	$128M	$128M	Owner earningsOwner earn.
—	—	—	—	—	8.7%	17.2%	26.0%	18.4%	16.0%	16.0%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
—	—	—	—	—	$47M	($13M)	$232M	($182M)	($5M)	($5M)	Free cash flowFCF
—	—	—	—	—	8.7%	−1.5%	26.0%	−22.6%	−0.6%	−0.6%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$40M	$40M	$44M	$49M	$47M	$36M	$44M	$62M	$72M	$60M	$27M	Dividends paidDiv. paid
$21M	$0	$0	$0	$10M	$168K	$0	$0	—	—	—	BuybacksBuybacks
2%	2%	-1%	2%	3%	-4%	8%	12%	7%	6%	6%	ROICROIC
4%	1%	-7%	1%	2%	-12%	14%	19%	11%	9%	9%	Return on equityROE
1%	−2%	−10%	−2%	−1%	−15%	11%	15%	6%	6%	8%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$188M	$190M	$205M	$185M	$160M	$117M	$304M	$372M	$343M	$293M	$293M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$38M	$27M	$35M	$40M	$25M	$31M	$78M	$47M	$26M	$41M	$41M	ReceivablesReceiv.
$19M	$16M	$20M	$13M	$22M	$23M	$26M	$23M	$19M	$13M	$13M	InventoryInvent.
$53M	$47M	$38M	$37M	$55M	$75M	$48M	$40M	$56M	$43M	$43M	Accounts payablePayables
$4M	($3M)	$18M	$17M	($8M)	($21M)	$56M	$29M	($10M)	$11M	$11M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$358M	$304M	$318M	$397M	$321M	$240M	$513M	$509M	$452M	$435M	$435M	Current assetsCur. assets
$393M	$339M	$254M	$354M	$382M	$332M	$370M	$323M	$409M	$458M	$458M	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
0.9×	0.9×	1.2×	1.1×	0.8×	0.7×	1.4×	1.6×	1.1×	0.9×	0.9×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$3.3B	$3.4B	$3.2B	$3.2B	$3.1B	$2.9B	$3.3B	$3.4B	$3.7B	$4.0B	$4.0B	Total assetsAssets
$1.8B	$1.8B	$1.6B	$1.5B	$1.5B	$1.4B	$1.4B	$1.4B	$1.6B	$1.8B	$1.8B	Total debtDebt
$1.6B	$1.6B	$1.4B	$1.3B	$1.3B	$1.3B	$1.1B	$1.0B	$1.3B	$1.5B	$1.5B	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
2.4×	1.0×	-0.4×	1.2×	1.9×	-3.1×	4.6×	3.8×	2.5×	2.7×	2.7×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$1.4B	$1.5B	$1.5B	$1.5B	$1.4B	$1.2B	$1.5B	$1.6B	$1.7B	$1.8B	$1.8B	Shareholders’ equityEquity
											Per share
17.0M	16.9M	17.4M	17.8M	18.8M	19.7M	28.2M	29.5M	29.5M	29.7M	30.1M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$28.37	$31.23	$30.41	$33.66	$34.32	$27.79	$30.52	$30.15	$27.25	$26.86	$26.51	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$3.33	$0.54	$-5.80	$0.79	$1.45	$-7.66	$7.40	$10.34	$6.16	$5.55	$5.47	EPS (diluted)EPS
—	—	—	—	—	$2.42	$5.24	$7.85	$5.01	$4.29	$4.23	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
—	—	—	—	—	$2.42	$-0.46	$7.85	$-6.17	$-0.15	$-0.15	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$2.38	$2.35	$2.55	$2.78	$2.49	$1.85	$1.55	$2.10	$2.43	$2.02	$0.88	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
—	—	—	—	—	$0.29	$10.70	$5.55	$16.59	$10.16	$10.03	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$82.75	$88.19	$85.79	$81.76	$72.12	$63.14	$52.22	$54.86	$58.56	$61.18	$60.39	Book value / shareBVPS

Share counts before 2018 are restated ×1/5 for a stock split, so per-share figures sit on one basis.

The diluted share count moved ×1.43 into 2022 — 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

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	−0.6%/yr	−4.8%/yr
Owner earnings / share	+15.4%/yr (4-yr)	+15.4%/yr (4-yr)
EPS	+5.8%/yr	+30.8%/yr
Dividends / share	−1.8%/yr	−4.1%/yr
Capital spending / share	+144.1%/yr (4-yr)	+144.1%/yr (4-yr)
Book value / share	−3.3%/yr	−3.2%/yr

The record, charted

FY2016–2025

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

Share count

30Mpeak FY2025

ROIC

6%low FY2021

Net debt ÷ owner earnings

11.7×peak FY2021

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

$128Mowner earningsvs.$165Mnet incomelow FY2021

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetained

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

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 $128M of owner earnings, the operating cash left after the $170M it takes just to hold its position. It put $132M more into growth; free cash flow, after that spending, was ($5M).

Reported net income$165M

Owner earnings$128M · 16% of revenue

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	$165M	$182M	$305M	$208M	($151M)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$170M	+$160M	+$144M	+$141M	+$143M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$37M	−$34M	−$54M	−$61M	+$60M
Cash from operations	$298M	$308M	$395M	$289M	$53M
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume	−$170M	−$160M	−$164M	−$141M	−$6M
Owner earnings	$128M	$148M	$232M	$148M	$47M
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still	−$132M	−$330M	—	−$161M	—
Free cash flow	($5M)	($182M)	$232M	($13M)	$47M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	16%	18%	26%	17%	9%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position (here about $170M, roughly its depreciation, the rate its assets wear out). The other $132M 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.

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 20-F · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 2.7×

Adequate

Operating income $252M ÷ interest expense $94M

What this means
Comfortable in a normal year, but below the margin of safety Graham looked for. Worth checking how stable the coverage has been across a full cycle.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $1.5B · 5.9× operating profit

Heavy net debt

Cash $293M − debt $1.8B

What this means
Netting $293M of cash and short-term investments against $1.8B of debt leaves $1.5B owed, about 5.9× a year's operating profit (7.1× 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 2%

Below average through the cycle

10-yr median, range -4%–12%; 6% latest = NOPAT $199M ÷ invested capital $3.3B

Industry peers: median 4%

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 17%

High through the cycle

5-yr median margin, range 9%–26%; latest $128M = operating cash $298M − maintenance capex $170M

Industry peers: median 12%

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 16% of revenue this year, a 17% median across 5 years. It chose to put $132M more into growth, so free cash flow this year was ($5M) — the gap is investment, not weakness.
Are earnings backed by cash? 1.80×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $298M ÷ net income $165M

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? 21%

Reinvests most of it

Dividends + buybacks $27M ÷ Owner Earnings $128M

What this means
Of $128M Owner Earnings, $27M (21%) went back to shareholders, $27M 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? 1.78×

Expanding

Capex $302M ÷ depreciation $170M

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 Miss

Revenue ≥ $2B · $799M

What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.
Strong liquidity Miss

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 0.95×

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 · $1.8B vs ($23M) 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 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 —

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 $7.21/share (latest year $5.47), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $60.39/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 8 of 10

What this means
Lost money in 2 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 8% → 37% (3-yr avg ends)

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about 8% early to 37% lately, median 15% — pricing power intact or improving.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC returns capital

What this means
The capital base barely grew: this business returns cash through dividends and buybacks rather than reinvesting. Judge it on the cash returned, not on compounding.
Owner earnings growth +9%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 9% a year over the record.
Worst year 2021 · −21.9% op. margin

What this means
Operations went underwater in 2021, understand why before trusting the good years.
Dividend record rising

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

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

Does AI threaten the moat?

Low contestability

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

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

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

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

Current Position

as of fiscal year-end, Dec 31, 2025

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$435M

Cash & short-term investments$293M
Receivables$41M
Inventory$13M
Other current assets$88M

Current liabilities$458M

Debt due within a year$295M
Accounts payable$43M
Other current liabilities$120M

Current ratio0.95×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio0.92×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.64×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital($23M)the cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$295M due · $293M cash cash alone won't cover the maturities; it leans on refinancing or operating cash · both figures from the Dec 31, 2025 balance sheet

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$1.8Bequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Debt incl. operating leases$1.8B$8M of it operating leases

Deferred revenue$17Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2021–2025

Over the record, the business generated $1.3B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a reinvestor, most operating cash is plowed back into the business.

Reinvested$1.3B · 94%
Dividends$274M · 20%
Buybacks$168K · 0%

Returned to owners$274M
39% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $274M as dividends and $168K as buybacks.
Source of funding−$194M
Reinvestment and shareholder returns ran $194M beyond the operating cash the business generated, so the gap was financed off the balance sheet: debt rose from $1.4B to $1.8B.
Average price paid for buybacks—
Buybacks ran $168K over the span, but the filings don't tag the share count needed to deduce the average price paid.
Net change in share count53.3%
The diluted count rose from 20M to 30M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
Dividend record$2.02/sh
Paid in 5 of the years on record, the per-share dividend growing about 2% a year. It was cut at least once along the way.
Return on what it retained6%
Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($436M over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $27M, so each retained $1 added about 0.06 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.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd 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?53.3%
Diluted shares grew 53.3% over 2021–2025, even as the company spent $168K 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.

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.

Peers, Marine Shipping

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
KEXKirby	$3.4B	—	7.7%	4%	10%
MATXMatson	$3.3B	96%	11.4%	11%	12%
TDWTidewater Inc.	$1.4B	—	-12.5%	-6%	3%
INSWInternational Seaways Inc. Common Stock	$843M	—	12.3%	3%	33%
TENTsakos Energy Navigation Ltd	$799M	—	16.8%	3%	17%
PANLPangaea Logistics Solutions Ltd.	$632M	—	7.7%	10%	10%
LPGDorian LPG Ltd.	$482M	—	35.2%	7%	38%
GNKGenco Shipping & Trading Limited	$342M	—	-1.1%	-0%	31%
Group median	—	—	9.6%	3%	14%

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Enter the US price, in dollars: the NYSE/Nasdaq quote you hold. Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd's US listing is the ordinary share itself. The record tables elsewhere on this page remain as filed.

Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd has delivered.

Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd’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 $

Through the cycle, Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd earns about $137M on its 17.2% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 16.0% 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 ($137M) Net of stock comp Steady-state · maintenance capex ($128M)

—

The assumptions Required return 9% Years of high growth 10 Terminal growth 2.5%

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

Enter a price above to run it.

Implied by the price—

Owner-earnings growth · ’21→’25+9%/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 ($5M) on 30M shares outstanding, per the 20-F cover, as of 2025-12-31; net debt $1.5B. 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 ($302M) runs well above depreciation ($170M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $128M, 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 TEN against another business →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd (TEN), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/TEN, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← TECK its page in the Manual TEO →

Industry order: ← TDW the Marine Shipping chapter TK →