Owner Scorecard


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EGY, VAALCO Energy Inc.

Oil & Gas Producers capital-intensive Cyclical

We are an independent energy company headquartered in Houston, Texas engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and production of crude oil, natural gas and NGLs.

We have a diversified, African-focused portfolio of production, development and exploration assets located in Gabon, Egypt, Cote d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, as well as, prior to the Canada Asset Divestment (defined below), producing properties in Canada.

For the year ended December 31, 2025, our producing properties in Gabon produced approximately 2,535 MBoe or 42% of our total 2025 production.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K
EGY · VAALCO Energy Inc.
I

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025
$359M
−25.0% YoY · 40% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $350M 5-yr avg $369M
Operating margin −10.4% 5-yr avg 29.1%
ROIC −5% 5-yr avg 27%

Next report By 11/8 · the 10-Q for the quarter ended late September · due within 40 days of period end · has filed ~42 days after · the wire records it on arrival

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

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

What it is
Revenue is led by Gabon (51%) and Egypt (39%), with 2 more segments behind.
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 27% 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 −41% and 49% 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 15% of sales, so the return earned on what it sinks into that plant weighs as much as the margin. 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.
Is it a good business?
Return on capital has run in the teens (median 18%, above 15% in 6 of 8 years). Owner earnings agree: roughly 23% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. Returns like these are solid but short of clear franchise economics; whether they hold is what the 10-K settles, not the multiple.

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

Where the money comes from

read the 10-K →

Revenue spreads across 4 segments, the largest Gabon at 51%.

Revenue by reportable segment, FY2025
  • Gabon51%$182M
  • Egypt39%$140M
  • Canada5%$19M
  • Cote d'Ivoire5%$18M

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

II

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2016–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left
2016’162017’172018’182019’192020’202021’212022’222023’232024’242025’25TTMTTMJun 2026
Income statement
$60M$77M$105M$85M$67M$199M$354M$455M$479M$359M$350MRevenueRevenue
16%13%11%18%16%7%3%5%6%9%10%SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
($4M)$20M$51M$21M($27M)$79M$171M$159M$136M($21M)($37M)Operating incomeOp. inc.
−7.3%25.9%48.9%25.1%−40.6%39.7%48.3%34.9%28.5%−5.7%−10.4%Operating marginOp. mgn
($9M)$21M$55M$21M($20M)$60M$123M$150M$140M($27M)Pretax incomePretax
($27M)$10M$98M$3M($48M)$82M$52M$60M$58M($41M)($109M)Net incomeNet inc.
50%58%60%58%Effective tax rateTax rate
Cash flow & returns
($79K)$9M$37M$26M$27M$50M$129M$224M$114M$213M$196MOperating cash flowOp. cash
$7M$6M$6M$7M$9M$21M$48M$115M$143M$110M$104MDepreciation & amortizationD&A
$19M($8M)($69M)$13M$66M($55M)$27M$45M($92M)$138M$195MWorking capital & otherWC & other
$9M$2M$14M$10M$20M$17M$160M$97M$103MCapexCapex
14.6%2.4%13.5%12.2%29.8%8.3%45.1%21.4%21.5%Capex / revenueCapex/rev
($7M)$7M$32M$19M$18M$34M$81M$126M$11MOwner earningsOwner earn.
−11.7%9.3%30.1%22.9%26.9%16.9%22.8%27.8%2.2%Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($9M)$7M$23M$16M$7M$34M($31M)$126M$11MFree cash flowFCF
−14.7%9.3%22.0%19.1%11.1%16.9%−8.8%27.8%2.2%Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$6M$0$0AcquisitionsAcquis.
$0$0$9M$27M$26M$26M$27MDividends paidDiv. paid
$51K$20K$58K$4M$992K$1M$4M$24M$7M$709KBuybacksBuybacks
($17M)($1M)($14M)($10M)($24M)($39M)($123M)($97M)($102M)($256M)Investing cash flowInv. cash
($144K)($6M)($9M)($4M)($929K)($57K)($18M)($57M)($43M)$12MFinancing cash flowFin. cash
$0$0($218K)($153K)($3K)$83KExchange-rate effectFX
($17M)$2M$14M$12M$2M$11M($13M)$69M($31M)($31M)Change in cashΔ cash
67%17%-158%83%20%22%16%-4%-5%ROICROIC
94%89%2%-78%57%11%13%12%-9%-29%Return on equityROE
−78%57%9%7%6%−15%−36%Retained to equityRetained/eq
Balance sheet
$20M$20M$33M$46M$48M$49M$37M$121M$83M$59M$30MCash & investmentsCash+inv
$7M$4M$12M$14M$22M$52M$45M$95M$40M$21MReceivablesReceiv.
$19M$12M$8M$16M$17M$19M$60MAccounts payablePayables
($12M)($8M)$4M($2M)$4M($8M)$45M$95M$40M$21MOperating working capitalOper. WC
$38M$36M$59M$70M$64M$88M$200M$228M$238M$133M$89MCurrent assetsCur. assets
$56M$47M$41M$64M$53M$84M$162M$127M$182M$192M$204MCurrent liabilitiesCur. liab.
0.7×0.8×1.4×1.1×1.2×1.0×1.2×1.8×1.3×0.7×0.4×Current ratioCurr. ratio
$28M$23M$53M$68M$37M$94M$495M$460M$538M$586MNet PP&ENet PP&E
$81M$80M$166M$212M$141M$263M$856M$823M$955M$913M$969MTotal assetsAssets
$14M$9M$0$0$0$60M$177MTotal debtDebt
($6M)($11M)($37M)($121M)($83M)$1M$147MNet debt / (cash)Net debt
-1.7×14.1×353.7×-251.9×Interest coverageInt. cov.
$81M$69M$56M$102M$80M$119M$390M$344M$453M$470MTotal liabilitiesTotal liab.
($358K)$10M$110M$110M$61M$144M$466M$479M$502M$443M$380MShareholders’ equityEquity
0.3%1.4%2.3%4.1%0.2%1.2%0.6%0.6%0.9%1.7%1.8%Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
Per share
58.4M58.7M60.0M59.1M57.6M58.8M70.0M107M104M104M104MShares out (diluted)Shares
$1.02$1.31$1.75$1.43$1.17$3.39$5.06$4.27$4.62$3.45$3.35Revenue / shareRev/sh
$-0.45$0.16$1.64$0.04$-0.84$1.39$0.74$0.57$0.56$-0.40$-1.04EPS (diluted)EPS
$-0.12$0.12$0.53$0.33$0.31$0.57$1.15$1.19$0.10Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-0.15$0.12$0.38$0.27$0.13$0.57$-0.44$1.19$0.10Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.00$0.00$0.13$0.25$0.25$0.25$0.26Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$0.15$0.03$0.24$0.17$0.35$0.28$2.28$0.91$0.99Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$-0.01$0.18$1.83$1.86$1.07$2.46$6.66$4.49$4.83$4.26$3.64Book value / shareBVPS

The diluted share count moved ×1.52 into 2023 — 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-yr5-yr
Revenue / share+14.5%/yr+24.2%/yr
Owner earnings / share−20.6%/yr
Capital spending / share+26.7%/yr (8-yr)+41.5%/yr
Book value / share+31.9%/yr

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetained

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

FY2017FY2025

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 reported $58M of profit but $11M of owner earnings: $48M less than the profit line, taken out by capital spending and the timing of cash.

Reported net income$58M
Owner earnings$11M · 2% of revenue
FY2024FY2023FY2022FY2021FY2020
Reported net income$58M$60M$52M$82M($48M)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back+$143M+$115M+$48M+$21M+$9M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost+$4M+$3M+$2M+$2M+$114K
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items−$92M+$45M+$27M−$55M+$66M
Cash from operations$114M$224M$129M$50M$27M
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume−$103M−$97M−$48M−$17M−$9M
Owner earnings$11M$126M$81M$34M$18M
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still−$112M−$11M
Free cash flow$11M$126M($31M)$34M$7M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue2%28%23%17%27%

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 $4M), owner earnings is nearer $6M.

Much of fiscal 2024'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?

  • Interest expense not tagged in the data
    What this means

    No usable interest-expense line was tagged in the filing data, but the balance sheet carries real net debt — so the interest burden here is unknown, not absent. Read the debt on the net-debt check below.

  • Net debt against an operating loss
    Cash $59M − debt $67M
    What this means

    Netting $59M of cash and short-term investments against $67M of debt leaves $8M owed, with no operating profit this year to measure it against — understand that combination before anything else about the company. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.

  • Not enough data
    What this means

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

Is it a good business?

  • High through the cycle
    8-yr median, range -158%–83%; -4% latest = NOPAT ($16M) ÷ invested capital $451M
    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 8 years (it ran -4% 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.

  • Not enough data
    Industry peers: median 31%
    What this means

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

  • Loss, but cash-generative
    Net income ($41M) · cash from operations $213M
    What this means

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

How is the cash used?

  • Not enough data
    What this means

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

  • Investing or harvesting?
    Not enough data
    What this means

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

The promise and the pay packet

  • Is the buyback buying ownership, or mopping up? 1.7%
    Stock pay, share count unread
    Stock compensation $6M (fiscal 2025), 1.7% of revenue · repurchases $709K · the share count is not comparable across these years (a split or a first listing sits in the record), so the drift is withheld
    What this means

    Stock handed to employees is a real cost paid in the owner's own currency: it is charged against profit, but the shares it creates are permanent. Many companies repurchase stock at the same time, which looks like a return of capital and often is not — if the count barely moves, the cash merely cancelled the pay packet and bought the owner nothing. The three states worth telling apart are a count genuinely shrinking, a count standing still despite large repurchases, and a count rising because the issuance was never offset at all.

Graham’s defensive tests · 0 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 · $359M
    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× · 0.69×
    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 · $67M vs ($59M) 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) · 3 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 · 4 of 10 yrs
    What this means

    An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.

  • Earnings growth Miss
    Earnings +33% over the record · −5%
    What this means

    At least a third more earnings than a decade ago, averaging three years at each end. Net income (not per-share), so stock splits don't distort it, buybacks and dilution show up in the share-count line instead.

  • Moderate price
    P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price
    What this means

    Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $0.25/share (latest year $-0.39), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $4.22/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 7 of 10
    What this means

    Lost money in 3 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.

  • Return on capital ≥ 15% 3 of 4 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 22% → 19% (3-yr avg ends)
    What this means

    Through the cycle the operating margin slipped — about 22% early to 19% lately, median 26% — competition or costs are biting in.

  • 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 +137%/yr
    What this means

    Owner earnings grew about 137% a year over the record.

  • Worst year 2020 · −40.6% op. margin
    What this means

    Operations went underwater in 2020, understand why before trusting the good years.

  • Share count +6.6%/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.

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

Current Position

as of the latest quarter, Jun 30, 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$89M
  • Cash & short-term investments$30M
  • Receivables$21M
  • Other current assets$37M
Current liabilities$204M
  • Other current liabilities$204M
Current ratio0.44×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratioinventory untagged this quarter, so withheld rather than shown equal to the current ratio
Cash ratio0.15×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital($115M)the cushion left after near-term bills
Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+39.5%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters1.3× → 0.4×
Deeper floors
Tangible book value$380Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value($499M)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$199M$22M of it operating leases

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2016–2024

Over the record, the business generated $616M of operating cash; how management split it reads as a reinvestor, most operating cash is plowed back into the business.

  • Reinvested$432M · 70%
  • Dividends$62M · 10%
  • Buybacks$41M · 7%
  • Retained (debt / cash)$82M · 13%
  • Returned to owners$103M

    32% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $62M as dividends and $41M as buybacks.

  • Source of fundingOperating cash

    Operating cash covered reinvestment and returns; over the span debt rose $163M and cash and short-term investments rose $10M.

  • Average price paid for buybacks

    Buybacks ran $41M over the span, but the filings don't tag the share count needed to deduce the average price paid.

  • Net change in share count78.8%

    The diluted count rose from 58M to 104M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.

  • Dividend record$0.25/sh

    Paid in 3 of the years on record. It was never cut over the span.

  • Return on what it retained33%

    Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($185M over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $62M, so each retained $1 added about 0.33 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.

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 yearChief executivePay, as filed“Actually paid”Owner earnings
2021George Maxwell$657k$657k$34M
2021George Maxwell$2.3M$1.3M$34M
2022George Maxwell$1.7M$1.6M$81M
2023George Maxwell$2.0M$2.0M$126M
2024George Maxwell$3.0M$2.4M$11M
2025George Maxwell$3.0M$2.2M

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.

  • Insider ownership3%

    The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.

  • CEO pay ratio43:1

    What the chief earns for every dollar the median employee makes, per the 2026 proxy. A high ratio alone settles nothing; some businesses are genuinely top-heavy in scarce skill. A runaway figure is where Buffett starts asking whether the board is doing its job.

  • Stock-based compensation$6M

    The slice of the business handed to employees in shares in fiscal 2025, 1.7% of revenue. 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.

What an owner would ask, FY2025

read the 10-K →
  • Who stands behind the reserve estimates?
    Netherland, Sewell & Associates — the filing’s word: “evaluated”
    “Our reserves information was evaluated by the independent petroleum engineering firm, Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc. ("NSAI").”verify →

    The filing also names GLJ: “Prior to 2025, reserves information for Canada was independently evaluated by GLJ Ltd. ("GLJ").”verify →

  • Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
    Management names Oil & gas reserve estimates, Depletion & DD&A, Asset retirement obligations, 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, Oil & Gas Producers

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each column names the period it is read over, and a median resting on fewer than three years carries that count beside it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each figure against.

CompanyRevenuelatest FY, USDOp. marginmedian over the recordROICmedian over the recordOwner earn. marginmedian over the record
WTIW&T Offshore Inc.$501M13.8%3%16%
GPRKGeopark Ltd$493M30.2%21%23%
GRNTGranite Ridge Resources Inc.$450M19.3%9%56%
TXOTXO Partners L.P. Common$401M-7.6%-2%29%
REPXRiley Exploration Permian Inc.$392M21.7%7%31%
EGYVAALCO Energy Inc.$359M27.2%18%23%
INRInfinity Natural Resources Inc.$356M32.6%16%2y69%
VTSVitesse Energy Inc.$274M15.9%4%50%
Group median20.5%8%30%
IV

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

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

VAALCO Energy Inc.’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, VAALCO Energy Inc. earns about $82M on its 22.8% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s — margin runs below that; the reported figure may understate a lean year. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year.

Base

The assumptions

9.0% = the 4.71% 10-year Treasury (Aug 18, 2026) + 4.29 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 · since FY2023−92%/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 (4.71%, as of Aug 18, 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 — on 105M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-08-04; net debt $147M. The base opens on the through-cycle figure (the latest year sits off 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. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "VAALCO Energy Inc. (EGY), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/EGY, data as of 2026-08-17.

Manual order: ← EGP its page in the Manual EHC →

Industry order: ← DVN the Oil & Gas Producers chapter EOG →