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PAM, Pampa Energia S.A.
Pampa Energia S.A. is the fifth-largest gas producer with 9% of the country's gas output and the third-largest shale gas producer with 10% market share.
CTEB, Transener and TGS are affiliates, which under IFRS are not consolidated in the financial statements. 1) Average 2025 production. 2) It includes 1.1 kbbl of crude oil produced in El Tordillo and La Tapera-Puesto Quiroga, assigned in October 2025. 3) It includes 848 MW at CTEB, co-operated by Pampa.
We are engaged in the oil and gas business through the exploration and exploitation of direct interests in blocks located in Argentina, with operations in 9 production blocks, 2 exploratory blocks and 470 productive wells.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- Situation
- Regulated utility. Returns are set by regulation on an approved rate base; the capital spending regulators approve becomes the growth, recovered through allowed rates. Revenue in runoff. Revenue has shrunk about 2% a year across the record while operations still generate cash.
- What moves the needle
- Gross margin has run about 38% and operating margin about 29% through the cycle, a solid spread between what it charges and what the product costs to make. Capital spending runs about 23% 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 pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
- Is it a good business?
- Return on capital has sat near the cost of capital (median 13%). By owner earnings: roughly 11% of revenue reaches owners as cash, though it swings. 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.
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, 2017–2024
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2017’17 | 2018’18 | 2019’19 | 2020’20 | 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | TTMTTMDec 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | |||||||||
| $2.2B | $1.4B | $1.3B | $1.1B | $1.5B | $1.8B | $1.7B | $1.9B | $1.9B | RevenueRevenue |
| $601M | $605M | $529M | $410M | — | $690M | $625M | $597M | $597M | Gross profitGross prof. |
| 28% | 42% | 39% | 38% | — | 38% | 36% | 32% | 32% | Gross marginGross mgn |
| $368M | $618M | $462M | $243M | $579M | $631M | $424M | $440M | $440M | Operating incomeOp. inc. |
| 16.9% | 43.0% | 34.5% | 22.6% | 38.4% | 34.5% | 24.5% | 23.5% | 23.5% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| $286M | $224M | $692M | ($367M) | $273M | $456M | $302M | $619M | $619M | Net incomeNet inc. |
| -10% | — | — | — | 22% | 21% | 51% | — | 34% | Effective tax rateTax rate |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||||||
| $439M | $610M | $802M | $693M | $729M | $619M | $575M | $435M | $435M | Operating cash flowOp. cash |
| $205M | $165M | $186M | $205M | $205M | $212M | $267M | $342M | $342M | DepreciationDeprec. |
| ($52M) | $221M | ($76M) | $855M | $251M | ($49M) | $6M | ($526M) | ($526M) | Working capital & otherWC & other |
| $485M | $455M | $426M | $124M | $206M | $416M | $758M | $447M | $447M | CapexCapex |
| 22.3% | 31.7% | 31.8% | 11.6% | 13.7% | 22.7% | 43.8% | 23.8% | 23.8% | Capex / revenueCapex/rev |
| ($46M) | $155M | $376M | $569M | $523M | $203M | ($183M) | ($12M) | ($12M) | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| −2.1% | 10.8% | 28.1% | 53.0% | 34.7% | 11.1% | −10.6% | −0.6% | −0.6% | Owner earnings marginOE mgn |
| ($46M) | $155M | $376M | $569M | $523M | $203M | ($183M) | ($12M) | ($12M) | Free cash flowFCF |
| −2.1% | 10.8% | 28.1% | 53.0% | 34.7% | 11.1% | −10.6% | −0.6% | −0.6% | Free cash flow marginFCF mgn |
| $0 | $19M | $75M | $34M | $9M | $8M | $1M | — | $8M | Dividends paidDiv. paid |
| — | — | 13% | — | 15% | 13% | 6% | 8% | 6% | ROICROIC |
| 15% | 16% | 36% | -26% | 15% | 20% | 13% | 19% | 19% | Return on equityROE |
| 15% | 15% | 32% | −28% | 15% | 20% | 13% | — | 19% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | |||||||||
| $31M | $241M | $225M | $141M | $110M | $106M | $171M | $738M | $738M | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| — | $703M | $561M | $341M | $256M | $305M | $314M | — | $341M | ReceivablesReceiv. |
| $113M | $137M | $153M | $116M | $155M | $173M | $205M | $223M | $223M | InventoryInvent. |
| — | $657M | $454M | $116M | — | — | $238M | $253M | $253M | Accounts payablePayables |
| $113M | $183M | $260M | $341M | $411M | $478M | $281M | ($30M) | $311M | Operating working capitalOper. WC |
| — | $1.5B | $1.4B | $948M | $1.1B | $1.3B | $1.3B | $2.4B | $2.4B | Current assetsCur. assets |
| — | $1.2B | $854M | $448M | $342M | $631M | $521M | $1.3B | $1.3B | Current liabilitiesCur. liab. |
| — | 1.3× | 1.6× | 2.1× | 3.3× | 2.1× | 2.6× | 1.8× | 1.8× | Current ratioCurr. ratio |
| — | $3.3B | $3.5B | $1.6B | $1.7B | $2.2B | $2.5B | $2.6B | $2.6B | Net PP&ENet PP&E |
| $5.7B | $5.7B | $5.7B | $4.9B | $3.9B | $4.7B | $4.7B | $6.3B | $6.3B | Total assetsAssets |
| — | $2.2B | $1.9B | $1.6B | $1.4B | $1.6B | $1.4B | $2.1B | $2.1B | Total debtDebt |
| — | $1.9B | $1.7B | $1.5B | $1.3B | $1.5B | $1.3B | $1.3B | $1.3B | Net debt / (cash)Net debt |
| 1.6× | 3.4× | 2.5× | 1.4× | 3.1× | 2.9× | 1.2× | 2.4× | 2.4× | Interest coverageInt. cov. |
| $2.0B | $1.4B | $1.9B | $1.4B | $1.8B | $2.3B | $2.4B | $3.3B | $3.3B | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| Per share | |||||||||
| 0K | 0K | 2.70B | 2.36B | 2.11B | 2.07B | 2.05B | 2.04B | 2.08B | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $28431372.55 | $18410256.41 | $0.50 | $0.46 | $0.72 | $0.88 | $0.85 | $0.92 | $0.90 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| $3738562.09 | $2871794.87 | $0.26 | $-0.16 | $0.13 | $0.22 | $0.15 | $0.30 | $0.30 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| $-601307.19 | $1987179.49 | $0.14 | $0.24 | $0.25 | $0.10 | $-0.09 | $-0.01 | $-0.01 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| $-601307.19 | $1987179.49 | $0.14 | $0.24 | $0.25 | $0.10 | $-0.09 | $-0.01 | $-0.01 | Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh |
| $0.00 | $243589.74 | $0.03 | $0.01 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | — | $0.00 | Dividends / shareDiv/sh |
| $6339869.28 | $5833333.33 | $0.16 | $0.05 | $0.10 | $0.20 | $0.37 | $0.22 | $0.21 | Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh |
| $25738562.09 | $17512820.51 | $0.71 | $0.61 | $0.85 | $1.10 | $1.17 | $1.61 | $1.58 | Book value / shareBVPS |
The diluted share count moved ×34596153.85 into 2019 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.
Share counts before TTM are restated ×1.5 for a stock split, so per-share figures sit on one basis.
| 7-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | −91.5%/yr | +13.1%/yr |
| EPS | −90.3%/yr | +3.4%/yr |
| Dividends / share | — | −98.2%/yr |
| Capital spending / share | −91.4%/yr | +6.8%/yr |
| Book value / share | −90.6%/yr | +17.8%/yr |
Where the cash went
ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedEach year's operating cash, by what management did with it: the mix, and how it drifts.
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 $619M of profit but ($12M) of owner earnings: $631M less than the profit line, taken out by capital spending and the timing of cash.
| FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 | FY2020 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reported net income | $619M | $302M | $456M | $273M | ($367M) |
| Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back | +$342M | +$267M | +$212M | +$205M | +$205M |
| Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items | −$526M | +$6M | −$49M | +$251M | +$855M |
| Cash from operations | $435M | $575M | $619M | $729M | $693M |
| Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow | −$447M | −$758M | −$416M | −$206M | −$124M |
| Owner earnings | ($12M) | ($183M) | $203M | $523M | $569M |
| Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue | -1% | -11% | 11% | 35% | 53% |
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 .
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.
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
Will it survive?
- AdequateOperating income $440M ÷ interest expense $185M
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? $1.3B · 3.0× operating profitMeaningful net debtCash $738M − debt $2.1B
What this means
Netting $738M of cash and short-term investments against $2.1B of debt leaves $1.3B owed, about 3.0× a year's operating profit (4.7× 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.
- TightDSO 66 + DIO 64 − DPO 72 days
What this means
Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. Lower is better; a long cycle means growth itself eats cash.
Is it a good business?
- Solid through the cycle5-yr median, range 6%–15%; 6% latest = NOPAT $291M ÷ invested capital $4.6BIndustry peers: median 2%
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 5 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.
- Solid through the cycle8-yr median margin, range -11%–53%; latest ($12M) = operating cash $435M − maintenance capex $447MIndustry peers: median 13%
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 -1% of revenue this year, a 11% median across 8 years.
- Mostly cash-backedCash from ops $435M ÷ net income $619M
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?
- No surplus to allocate
What this means
The business didn't generate positive Owner Earnings this year, so any distributions came from the balance sheet or borrowing, not from operations.
- Investing or harvesting? 1.31×ExpandingCapex $447M ÷ depreciation $342M
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 NearRevenue ≥ $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 —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 PassDebt ≤ 2× equity (Graham's utility test) · $2.1B vs $3.3B 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 NearA profit every year (8-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 MissUninterrupted dividends · 6 of 8 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 NearEarnings +33% over the record · +15%
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 $337500.00/share (latest year $455147.06), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $2416176.47/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, 2017–2024
Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.
- Profitable years 7 of 8
What this means
Lost money in 1 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
- Return on capital ≥ 15% 1 of 7 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 31% → 27% (3-yr avg ends)
What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin slipped — about 31% early to 27% lately, median 24% — 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.
- Worst year 2017 · 16.9% op. margin
What this means
Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.
- Dividend record paid
What this means
Paid a dividend in 6 of the years on record.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Current Position
as of fiscal year-end, Dec 31, 2024Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.
- Cash & short-term investments$738M
- Receivables$341M
- Inventory$223M
- Other current assets$1.1B
- Debt due within a year$706M
- Accounts payable$253M
- Other current liabilities$343M
From the company's latest filing.
How the cash was used, 2017–2024
Over the record, the business generated $4.9B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a reinvestor, most operating cash is plowed back into the business.
- Reinvested$3.3B · 68%
- Dividends$146M · 3%
- Retained (debt / cash)$1.4B · 29%
- Returned to owners$146M
9% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $146M as dividends and $0 as buybacks.
- Net change in share count2719203186.3%
The diluted count rose from 0M to 2080M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
- Dividend record$0.00/sh
Paid in 6 of the years on record. It was cut at least once along the way.
- Return on what it retained−7%
Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($2.3B over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) fell $159M, so each retained $1 gave back about 0.07 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.
Peers, Electric Utilities
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENICEnel Chile S.A. | $4.2B | — | 20.4% | — | 19% |
| BEPCBROOKFIELD RENEWABLE CORPORATION | $3.7B | — | 4.1% | 2% | 13% |
| TLNTalen Energy Corporation | $2.6B | — | 3.5% | 2% | 4% |
| AQNAlgonquin Power & Utilities Corp. | $2.4B | 71%4y | 20.7% | 4% | 8% |
| PAMPampa Energia S.A. | $1.9B | 38% | 29.5% | 13% | 11% |
| CWENClearway Energy Inc. | $1.4B | 67% | 21.6% | 2% | 36% |
| EDNEDENOR | $1.4B | — | -0.9% | 5%2y | 11% |
| KENKenon Holdings Ltd. | $872M | 28% | 6.2% | 2% | 27% |
| Group median | — | 53% | 13.3% | 2% | 12% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFEnter the US price, in dollars: the NYSE/Nasdaq quote you hold. Per the filing's own cover, “American Depositary Shares, each representing 25 shares of common”; Pampa Energia S.A. reports in USD, so every figure in this tool is stated per ADS so your dollar quote reconciles exactly. 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 Pampa Energia S.A. has delivered.
Pampa Energia S.A.’s latest year shows negative owner earnings, below the record’s own through-cycle owner earnings. So the tool opens on the through-cycle base, the cash it would earn at rest; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.
Through the cycle, Pampa Energia S.A. earns about $205M on its 10.9% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s −0.6% 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.
—
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.
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
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.
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 ($12M) on 0M shares outstanding (a weighted average, the only count this filer tags); net debt $1.3B. The if-converted diluted count is 83M, 152955085% above the shares outstanding: the dilution overhang (convertibles, options) a buyer inherits. 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.
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