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ET, Energy Transfer LP Common

Energy Transfer is a midstream energy partnership. It owns a sprawling network of pipelines, treating and processing plants, and storage that gathers, treats, moves, and stores natural gas, natural gas liquids, crude oil, and refined products across much of the United States, and it markets those commodities. Part of the take is a fee for carrying and holding other companies' hydrocarbons — a toll on volume — and part rides on the price of the commodities the partnership itself buys and sells.

Energy Transfer's primary cash requirements are for distributions to its partners, capital expenditures, general and administrative expenses and debt service requirements.

Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" for additional financial information about our segments.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K

ET · Energy Transfer LP Common

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025

$85.5B

+3.5% YoY · 17% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $107.4B 5-yr avg $80.8B

Gross margin 24% 5-yr avg 24%

Operating margin 10.0% 5-yr avg 10.8%

ROIC 8% 5-yr avg 9%

Owner-earnings margin 5% 5-yr avg 8%

Free cash flow margin 5% 5-yr avg 8%

Next report By 11/8 · the 10-Q for the quarter ended late September · due within 40 days of period end · has filed ~38 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 Refined product sales (28%) and Crude sales (27%), with 4 more lines behind.
What moves the needle: The question is how much of this is a toll road and how much is a commodity trade. The pipe sitting between the drilling basins and the end markets is the would-be moat, and the test is whether that footprint is dense enough to be the cheapest path a shipper can find — the filing itself calls the gathering, treating, and transport business highly competitive, and interstate rates answer to FERC, where a shipper can claw back charges. Fee contracts steady the cash, but the volume that rides through depends on drilling the partnership does not control, and a debt load takes its cut before the owners see a dollar. Watch the share of cash that is fee-based, the cost edge of the network, and what the leverage and returns leave behind — the figures are in the record below.
Is it a good business?: Return on capital has sat near the cost of capital (median 9%). By owner earnings: roughly 8% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. Modest returns here are the design, not a verdict: a regulated utility's prices are set by commission, so the questions are the return the regulator allows, how fast the invested base it earns that return on is growing, and the health of the relationship with the commissions that decide both — all of which live in the 10-K, not the multiple.

Drafted from the company's filings and reviewed by hand; every number is shown in full in the sections below.

Where the money comes from

read the 10-K →

Revenue spreads across 6 lines, the largest Refined product sales at 28%.

Revenue by product line, FY2025

Refined product sales28%$24.2B
Crude sales27%$23.5B
NGL sales22%$19.0B
Natural Gas, Midstream15%$12.4B
Natural gas sales5%$4.7B
Other2%$1.7B

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.

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	TTMTTMJun 2026
											Income statement
$31.8B	$40.5B	$54.1B	$54.2B	$39.0B	$67.4B	$89.9B	$78.6B	$82.7B	$85.5B	$107.4B	RevenueRevenue
$8.1B	$9.6B	$12.5B	$14.4B	$13.5B	$17.0B	$17.6B	$18.0B	$20.7B	$22.0B	$25.3B	Gross profitGross prof.
25%	24%	23%	27%	35%	25%	20%	23%	25%	26%	24%	Gross marginGross mgn
2%	1%	1%	1%	2%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
$1.9B	$2.7B	$5.4B	$7.2B	$3.0B	$8.8B	$7.7B	$8.3B	$9.1B	$9.0B	$10.8B	Operating incomeOp. inc.
5.8%	6.7%	10.0%	13.3%	7.7%	13.0%	8.6%	10.6%	11.1%	10.6%	10.0%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$204M	$710M	$3.7B	$5.0B	$377M	$6.9B	—	—	—	—	—	Pretax incomePretax
$995M	$954M	$1.7B	$3.5B	($648M)	$5.5B	$4.8B	$3.9B	$4.8B	$4.4B	$5.3B	Net incomeNet inc.
—	—	0%	4%	—	3%	4%	7%	10%	7%	10%	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$3.3B	$4.4B	$7.5B	$8.1B	$7.4B	$11.2B	$9.1B	$9.6B	$11.5B	$10.1B	$12.1B	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$2.2B	$2.6B	$2.9B	$3.1B	$3.7B	$3.8B	$4.2B	$4.4B	$5.2B	$5.7B	$6.1B	Depreciation & amortizationD&A
$41M	$822M	$2.8B	$1.3B	$4.2B	$1.8B	$16M	$1.1B	$1.4B	($114M)	$575M	Working capital & otherWC & other
$7.8B	$8.4B	$7.4B	$6.0B	$5.1B	$2.8B	$3.4B	$3.1B	$4.2B	$6.3B	$6.9B	CapexCapex
24.4%	20.8%	13.7%	11.0%	13.2%	4.2%	3.8%	4.0%	5.0%	7.4%	6.4%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$1.1B	$1.9B	$4.6B	$4.9B	$3.7B	$8.3B	$5.7B	$6.4B	$7.3B	$3.8B	$5.2B	Owner earningsOwner earn.
3.5%	4.6%	8.6%	9.1%	9.5%	12.4%	6.3%	8.2%	8.9%	4.5%	4.9%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($4.4B)	($4.0B)	$99M	$2.1B	$2.2B	$8.3B	$5.7B	$6.4B	$7.3B	$3.8B	$5.2B	Free cash flowFCF
−14.0%	−9.9%	0.2%	3.9%	5.7%	12.4%	6.3%	8.2%	8.9%	4.5%	4.9%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$330M	$303M	$429M	$7M	$0	$205M	$1.1B	$111M	$250M	—	$250M	AcquisitionsAcquis.
$1.0B	$1.0B	$1.7B	$3.1B	$2.8B	$1.9B	$3.0B	$4.2B	$4.6B	$4.7B	—	Dividends paidDiv. paid
$0	$0	$0	$25M	$0	$31M	$0	$0	—	—	—	BuybacksBuybacks
($9.0B)	($5.6B)	($7.1B)	($6.9B)	($4.9B)	($2.8B)	($4.0B)	($4.3B)	($5.9B)	($8.4B)	—	Investing cash flowInv. cash
$5.9B	$953M	($3.1B)	($1.3B)	($2.4B)	($8.4B)	($5.1B)	($5.3B)	($5.5B)	($816M)	—	Financing cash flowFin. cash
—	—	—	($128M)	$76M	($31M)	($79M)	($96M)	$151M	$960M	—	Change in cashΔ cash
4%	—	—	9%	—	11%	9%	9%	9%	8%	8%	ROICROIC
—	—	9%	16%	-3%	17%	14%	11%	14%	13%	11%	Return on equityROE
—	—	0%	2%	−19%	11%	5%	−1%	1%	−1%	—	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$467M	$336M	$419M	$291M	$367M	$336M	$257M	$161M	$312M	$1.3B	$1.0B	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$3.6B	$4.5B	$4.0B	$5.0B	$3.9B	$7.7B	$8.5B	$9.0B	—	—	$16.8B	ReceivablesReceiv.
$2.1B	$2.0B	$1.7B	$1.5B	$1.7B	$2.0B	$2.5B	$2.5B	$3.1B	$4.8B	$4.4B	InventoryInvent.
$3.5B	$4.7B	$3.5B	$4.1B	$2.8B	$6.8B	$7.0B	$6.7B	—	—	—	Accounts payablePayables
$2.1B	$1.8B	$2.2B	$2.5B	$2.8B	$2.8B	$4.0B	$4.9B	$3.1B	$4.8B	$21.2B	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$6.9B	$10.7B	$6.8B	$7.5B	$6.3B	$10.5B	$12.1B	$12.4B	$14.2B	$18.2B	$23.1B	Current assetsCur. assets
$7.3B	$7.9B	$9.3B	$7.7B	$5.9B	$10.8B	$10.4B	$11.3B	$12.7B	$15.0B	$19.9B	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
0.9×	1.4×	0.7×	1.0×	1.1×	1.0×	1.2×	1.1×	1.1×	1.2×	1.2×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$53.6B	$61.1B	$67.0B	$74.2B	$75.1B	$81.6B	$80.3B	$85.4B	$95.2B	$102.1B	—	Net PP&ENet PP&E
$5.7B	$4.8B	$4.9B	$5.2B	$2.4B	$2.5B	$2.6B	$4.0B	$3.9B	$5.5B	$5.6B	GoodwillGoodwill
$78.9B	$86.2B	$88.4B	$99.0B	$95.1B	$106.0B	$105.6B	$113.7B	$125.4B	$141.3B	$148.2B	Total assetsAssets
$43.8B	$44.1B	$46.0B	$51.1B	$51.4B	$49.7B	$48.3B	$52.4B	$59.8B	$68.3B	$68.4B	Total debtDebt
$43.3B	$43.7B	$45.6B	$50.8B	$51.1B	$49.4B	$48.0B	$52.2B	$59.4B	$67.1B	$67.4B	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
1.0×	1.4×	2.6×	3.1×	1.3×	3.9×	3.4×	3.2×	2.9×	2.6×	2.9×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$24.1B	$31.2B	$10.3B	$12.0B	$12.9B	$8.0B	$7.6B	$7.3B	$10.9B	$14.6B	—	Noncontrolling interestsNCI
($1.7B)	($1.2B)	$20.6B	$21.9B	$18.5B	$31.3B	$33.0B	$36.7B	$35.1B	$34.4B	$49.0B	Partners' capitalCapital
0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
$897M	$895M	$378M	$21M	$2.8B	—	—	—	—	—	$2.8B	Goodwill written downGW imp.
											Per share
1.08B	1.15B	1.46B	2.64B	2.70B	2.74B	3.10B	3.18B	3.42B	3.45B	3.46B	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$29.48	$35.21	$37.01	$20.55	$14.45	$24.61	$29.02	$24.73	$24.17	$24.80	$31.01	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$0.92	$0.83	$1.20	$1.33	$-0.24	$2.00	$1.54	$1.24	$1.41	$1.29	$1.53	EPS (diluted)EPS
$1.03	$1.63	$3.18	$1.86	$1.37	$3.04	$1.83	$2.02	$2.15	$1.11	$1.51	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-4.12	$-3.49	$0.07	$0.79	$0.83	$3.04	$1.83	$2.02	$2.15	$1.11	$1.51	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.95	$0.88	$1.15	$1.16	$1.04	$0.69	$0.98	$1.34	$1.35	$1.37	—	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$7.20	$7.34	$5.07	$2.26	$1.90	$1.03	$1.09	$0.99	$1.22	$1.83	$1.99	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$-1.57	$-1.04	$14.07	$8.31	$6.87	$11.43	$10.66	$11.55	$10.27	$9.96	$14.15	Book value / shareBVPS

The diluted share count moved ×1.8 into 2019 — 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	−1.9%/yr	+11.4%/yr
Owner earnings / share	+0.9%/yr	−4.0%/yr
EPS	+3.8%/yr	—
Dividends / share	+4.2%/yr	+5.7%/yr
Capital spending / share	−14.1%/yr	−0.8%/yr
Book value / share	—	+7.7%/yr

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 reported $4.4B of profit but $3.8B of owner earnings: $587M less than the profit line, taken out by capital spending and the timing of cash.

Reported net income$4.4B

Owner earnings$3.8B · 4% of revenue

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	$4.4B	$4.8B	$3.9B	$4.8B	$5.5B
Depreciationnon-cash charge added back	+$5.2B	+$4.7B	+$4.0B	+$3.8B	+$3.5B
Amortization of intangible assetsnon-cash charge added back; the purchase price of past acquisitions, expensed over time	+$479M	+$464M	+$399M	+$390M	+$352M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$148M	+$151M	+$130M	+$115M	+$111M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$114M	+$1.4B	+$1.1B	+$16M	+$1.8B
Cash from operations	$10.1B	$11.5B	$9.6B	$9.1B	$11.2B
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow	−$6.3B	−$4.2B	−$3.1B	−$3.4B	−$2.8B
Owner earnings	$3.8B	$7.3B	$6.4B	$5.7B	$8.3B
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	4%	9%	8%	6%	12%

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 $148M), owner earnings is nearer $3.7B.

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? 2.6×

Adequate

Operating income $9.0B ÷ interest expense $3.5B

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? $67.1B · 7.4× operating profit

Heavy net debt

Cash $1.3B − debt $68.3B

What this means
Netting $1.3B of cash and short-term investments against $68.3B of debt leaves $67.1B owed, about 7.4× a year's operating profit (7.6× 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 9%

Solid through the cycle

7-yr median, range 4%–11%; 8% latest = NOPAT $8.4B ÷ invested capital $101.4B

Industry peers: median 8%

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 7 years (it ran 8% 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 8%

Solid through the cycle

10-yr median margin, range 3%–12%; latest $3.8B = operating cash $10.1B − maintenance capex $6.3B

Industry peers: median 8%

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 4% of revenue this year, a 8% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $148M of SBC) leaves $3.7B.
Are earnings backed by cash? 2.29×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $10.1B ÷ net income $4.4B

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? 123%

Returned more than it generated

Dividends + buybacks $4.7B ÷ Owner Earnings $3.8B — this fiscal year

What this means
The company returned more than it generated: against $3.8B of Owner Earnings, $4.7B (123%) went back to shareholders, $4.7B dividends, $0 buybacks — the excess came from the balance sheet or borrowing, not the year's operations. Sustained, that pattern draws down cash or adds debt; the net-debt line above shows where it stands. This year's proportion is 123%; across the record (2016–2025) it is 59%, the capital-allocation section below.
Investing or harvesting? 1.11×

Maintaining

Capex $6.3B ÷ depreciation & amortization as filed $5.7B

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.

The promise and the pay packet

Is the buyback buying ownership, or mopping up? 0.2%

The count is rising

Stock compensation $148M (fiscal 2025), 0.2% of revenue · no repurchases · diluted shares +11.4% since 2022

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 · 4 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 Pass

Revenue ≥ $2B · $85.5B

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 —

Current ratio ≥ 2× (waived for utilities) · exempt

What this means
Graham exempted public utilities from this test: their working capital “takes care of itself” through the continuous bond-and-share financing of growth, so a thin current ratio is the industry's structure, not a warning. His substitute test — debt no more than twice book equity — is the next line.
Conservative debt Pass

Debt ≤ 2× equity (Graham's utility test) · $68.3B vs $34.4B equity

What this means
Graham's own substitution for public utilities: debt not exceeding twice the stock equity at book value, in place of the working-capital tests an industrial faces. A utility finances its plant with bonds by design; the question is whether the borrowing stays inside the equity behind it.
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 · +256%

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 $1.28/share (latest year $1.29), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $9.98/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 8% → 11% (3-yr avg ends)

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about 8% early to 11% lately, median 10% — pricing power intact or improving.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC 11%

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 +16%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 16% a year over the record.
Worst year 2016 · 5.8% op. margin

What this means
Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.
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$23.1B

Cash & short-term investments$1.0B
Receivables$16.8B
Inventory$4.4B
Other current assets$890M

Current liabilities$19.9B

Debt due within a year$12M
Other current liabilities$19.8B

Current ratio1.16×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio0.94×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.05×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$3.3Bthe cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$12M due · $1.0B cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Jun 30, 2026 balance sheet

Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+78.4%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters1.1× → 1.2×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$36.2Bequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Debt incl. operating leases$70.2B$1.8B of it operating leases

Deferred revenue$343Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

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.

'26$3.5B

'27$5.3B

'28$4.5B

'29$11.6B

'30$6.2B

later$37.6B

Bars scaled to the largest single year; “later” is everything due after 2030, shown apart since it dwarfs the years.

Due in the next 12 months$3.5Bthe first rung: what must be repaid or rolled over within the year

Within two years$8.8Bthe near wall, the part most exposed to today’s credit conditions

Biggest single year$11.6Bin 2029the lumpiest maturity, where a refinancing, if needed, is largest

Total scheduled principal$68.7Bevery year plus what lies beyond, as the footnote totals it

Against what the business has and earns

Cash & short-term investments, Jun 30, 2026$1.0B

One year of owner earnings (FY2025)$3.8B

Together, against $3.5B due next year1.4×

Cash on hand as of Jun 30, 2026 plus a year’s owner earnings comes to $4.9B against the $3.5B due in the twelve months after the Dec 31, 2025 schedule: 1.4 times it.

Maturity schedule extracted from the company’s Dec 31, 2025 annual report and reconciled to the total the table states.

How the cash was used, 2016–2025

Over the record, the business generated $82.1B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a reinvestor, most operating cash is plowed back into the business.

Reinvested$54.5B · 66%
Dividends$28.1B · 34%
Buybacks$56M · 0%

Returned to owners$28.2B
59% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $28.1B as dividends and $56M as buybacks.
Source of fundingOperating cash
Operating cash covered reinvestment and returns; over the span debt rose $24.6B and cash and short-term investments rose $553M.
Average price paid for buybacks—
Buybacks ran $56M over the span, but the filings don't tag the share count needed to deduce the average price paid.
Net change in share count221.0%
The diluted count rose from 1079M to 3463M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
Dividend record$1.37/sh
Paid in 10 of the years on record, the per-share dividend growing about 4% a year. It was cut at least once along the way.
Return on what it retained—
Not read here: owner earnings are negative over the span, or the company returned nearly all its earnings rather than retaining them, so there is too little retained to measure a return on.

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

Acquisitions & goodwill

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

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

Goodwill & intangibles$12.9B9% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired

Against book equity16%goodwill is this share of book equity; the rest is the company’s own retained and paid-in capital

Cash spent acquiring$8.7Bover 17 years since fiscal 2008 buying other businesses, against $54.5B of capital spent building over the 10-year record

$5.0B written down across 5 years (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020): goodwill the company has already conceded it overpaid for, charged against earnings. 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.

Beside that spending sits $2.8B of cumulative amortization of acquired intangibles charged against earnings since fiscal 2019 — the purchase price of past deals, expensed over time.

Goodwill, acquired intangibles and equity from the latest balance sheet; acquisition spend and amortization summed across the company's full tagged history, write-downs 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$148M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares in fiscal 2025, 0.2% of revenue, equal to 1.6% 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.

What an owner would ask, FY2025

read the 10-K →

Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
Management names Income taxes, Acquisitions, Insurance reserves, Contingencies 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, Pipelines & Midstream

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.

Company	Revenuelatest FY, USD	Gross marginmedian over the record	Op. marginmedian over the record	ROICmedian over the record	Owner earn. marginmedian over the record
ETEnergy Transfer LP Common	$85.5B	25%	10.3%	9%	8%
EPDEnterprise Products Partners L.P.	$52.6B	27%	14.4%	12%	12%
PAAPlains All American Pipeline L.P. Common	$44.3B	10%	2.9%	6%	5%
PAGPPlains GP Holdings L.P. Class A	$44.3B	10%	2.9%	-9%1y	5%
OKEONEOK Inc.	$33.6B	29%	15.8%	8%	13%
LNGCheniere Energy Inc.	$20.0B	44%3y	25.1%	19%	17%
TRGPTarga Resources Inc.	$17.0B	22%	4.0%	5%	8%
TRPTC Energy Corporation	$11.0B	93%	42.9%	7%3y	-9%
Group median	—	26%	12.3%	8%	8%

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 Energy Transfer LP Common has delivered.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, Energy Transfer LP Common earns about $7.2B on its 8.4% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 4.5% 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 Normalize · through-cycle ($7.2B) Net of stock comp (−$166M TTM)

—

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

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 · ’21→’25−5%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · since FY2018+69%/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 $5.2B on 3443M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-07-31; net debt $67.4B. The base is the latest year by default; Normalize values it on the through-cycle median owner-earnings margin (to avoid paying on a peak year). Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Weigh ET against another business →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Energy Transfer LP Common (ET), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/ET, data as of 2026-08-17.

Manual order: ← ESTC its page in the Manual ETD →

Industry order: ← EPD the Pipelines & Midstream chapter GEL →