Owner Scorecard


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PCG, PG&E Corp.

Multi-Utilities capital-intensive Regulated utilityDistress / turnaroundCyclical

PG&E is the holding company for Pacific Gas and Electric, a regulated utility that delivers electricity and natural gas to homes and businesses across northern and central California. It owns the poles, wires, substations, power plants and pipelines that carry the energy, and it bills customers for what it delivers. What it may charge is not set by the market but by a state regulator, which approves rates meant to cover its costs and earn an allowed return on the money sunk into that equipment.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K
PCG · PG&E Corp.
I

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025
$24.9B
+2.1% YoY · 6% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $25.8B 5-yr avg $23.2B
Operating margin 20.0% 5-yr avg 13.2%
ROIC 5% 5-yr avg 4%
Owner-earnings margin −16% 5-yr avg −19%
Free cash flow margin −16% 5-yr avg −19%

Next report Est. 10/20–11/2 · the 10-Q for the quarter ended late September · due within 40 days of period end · has filed ~24 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 Electric (73%) and Natural gas (27%).
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. Distress / turnaround. Thin interest coverage, or operating cash burned against real debt, across the record. The balance sheet carries this situation; the debt schedule sets the clock. 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
This is a franchise granted by regulators, not won in a market: the test is the regulatory compact — whether the utility is consistently allowed to earn its authorized return on its base of plant, since that approved return, not pricing power, is the whole game. Because the model is capital-hungry — it must keep pouring money into the grid and pipes whether or not that spending earns its keep — watch whether the cash it produces covers the cash it consumes, or whether the gap is filled with debt. The standing danger is its own equipment: lines and gas systems that can ignite fires or fail create open-ended liability the filing flags through wildfire securities suits, a customer credit trust, and leverage covenants — liability that can swamp years of allowed returns at once. The figures for margins, return on capital, and the debt load are in the record below.
Is it a good business?
Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median 4%, above 15% in 0 of 8 years). Owner earnings, the cash-based check, have been thin too. 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 →

Electric is 73% of revenue, with Natural gas the other meaningful line at 27%.

Revenue by product line, FY2025
  • Electric73%$18.3B
  • Natural gas27%$6.6B

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
$17.7B$17.1B$16.8B$17.1B$18.5B$20.6B$21.7B$24.4B$24.4B$24.9B$25.8BRevenueRevenue
$2.1B$2.9B($9.7B)($10.1B)$1.8B$1.9B$1.8B$2.7B$4.5B$4.7B$5.2BOperating incomeOp. inc.
11.8%17.0%−57.9%−58.9%9.5%9.1%8.5%10.9%18.3%19.0%20.0%Operating marginOp. mgn
$1.5B$2.2B($10.1B)($11.0B)($942M)$748M$476M$699M$2.3B$2.4BPretax incomePretax
$1.4B$1.6B($6.9B)($7.7B)($1.3B)($102M)$1.8B$2.2B$2.5B$2.6B$3.1BNet incomeNet inc.
4%24%-9%Effective tax rateTax rate
Cash flow & returns
$4.4B$6.0B$4.8B$4.8B($19.1B)$2.3B$3.7B$4.7B$8.0B$8.7B$8.1BOperating cash flowOp. cash
$3.0B$4.3B$11.6B$12.5B($17.8B)$2.4B$1.9B$2.5B$5.6B$6.1B$5.1BWorking capital & otherWC & other
$5.7B$5.6B$6.5B$6.3B$7.7B$7.7B$9.6B$9.7B$10.4B$11.8B$12.4BCapexCapex
32.3%32.9%38.9%36.9%41.6%37.2%44.2%39.8%42.5%47.3%48.0%Capex / revenueCapex/rev
($1.3B)$336M($1.8B)($1.5B)($26.8B)($5.4B)($5.9B)($5.0B)($2.3B)($3.1B)($4.3B)Owner earningsOwner earn.
−7.4%2.0%−10.5%−8.7%−145.2%−26.3%−27.0%−20.3%−9.6%−12.3%−16.5%Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($1.3B)$336M($1.8B)($1.5B)($26.8B)($5.4B)($5.9B)($5.0B)($2.3B)($3.1B)($4.3B)Free cash flowFCF
−7.4%2.0%−10.5%−8.7%−145.2%−26.3%−27.0%−20.3%−9.6%−12.3%−16.5%Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$921M$1.0B$0$0$0$0$86M$86MDividends paidDiv. paid
($5.8B)($5.7B)($6.6B)($6.4B)($7.7B)($6.9B)($10.2B)($9.2B)($11.4B)($12.3B)Investing cash flowInv. cash
$1.2B($55M)$3.0B$1.5B$25.9B$4.3B$7.1B$4.4B$3.6B$3.4BFinancing cash flowFin. cash
$272M$1.2B($98M)($950M)($320M)$640M($15M)$281M($241M)Change in cashΔ cash
6%6%-15%1%3%3%5%5%5%ROICROIC
8%9%-54%-149%-6%-0%8%9%8%8%9%Return on equityROE
3%3%−54%−149%8%9%8%9%Retained to equityRetained/eq
Balance sheet
$177M$449M$1.7B$1.6B$484M$291M$734M$635M$940M$713M$972MCash & investmentsCash+inv
$1.3B$1.2B$1.1B$1.3B$1.9B$2.3B$2.6B$2.0B$2.2B$2.3B$1.9BReceivablesReceiv.
$117M$115M$111M$97M$95M$44M$91M$65M$52M$75M$70MInventoryInvent.
$1.5B$1.6B$2.0B$2.0B$2.4B$2.9B$2.9B$2.3B$2.7B$3.4B$3.0BAccounts payablePayables
($126M)($288M)($716M)($570M)($424M)($466M)($152M)($196M)($476M)($1.0B)($1.1B)Operating working capitalOper. WC
$6.2B$6.3B$9.2B$10.2B$9.6B$11.1B$12.8B$14.4B$17.2B$15.8B$15.4BCurrent assetsCur. assets
$7.6B$7.1B$41.7B$7.6B$13.6B$17.4B$15.8B$17.3B$16.3B$16.3B$12.7BCurrent liabilitiesCur. liab.
0.8×0.9×0.2×1.3×0.7×0.6×0.8×0.8×1.1×1.0×1.2×Current ratioCurr. ratio
$50.6B$53.8B$58.6B$61.6B$66.1B$69.8B$76.2B$82.3B$88.2B$96.3BNet PP&ENet PP&E
$8.4B$4.4B$5.2B$6.4B$9.4B$9.7B$16.7B$17.5B$15.8B$16.3BRegulatory assetsReg. assets
$68.6B$68.0B$77.0B$85.2B$97.9B$103.3B$118.6B$125.7B$133.7B$141.6B$145.1BTotal assetsAssets
$16.9B$18.2B$40.6B$0$37.3B$42.7B$50.0B$52.4B$55.7B$58.2B$62.8BTotal debtDebt
$16.7B$17.7B$39.0B($1.6B)$36.8B$42.4B$49.3B$51.7B$54.8B$57.5B$61.9BNet debt / (cash)Net debt
$829M$888M$929M$934M$1.3B$1.6B$1.9B$2.9B$3.1B$3.0B$3.1BInterest expenseInt. exp.
2.5×3.3×-10.4×-10.8×1.4×1.2×1.0×0.9×1.5×1.6×1.7×Interest coverageInt. cov.
$252M$252M$252M$252M$252M$252M$252M$252M$252M$252MNoncontrolling interestsNCI
$17.9B$19.2B$12.7B$5.1B$21.0B$21.0B$22.8B$25.0B$30.1B$32.5B$33.9BShareholders’ equityEquity
Per share
501M513M517M528M1.26B1.99B2.13B2.14B2.15B2.20B2.28BShares out (diluted)Shares
$35.26$33.40$32.42$32.44$14.69$10.40$10.17$11.43$11.37$11.32$11.31Revenue / shareRev/sh
$2.78$3.21$-13.25$-14.50$-1.05$-0.05$0.84$1.05$1.15$1.18$1.34EPS (diluted)EPS
$-2.59$0.65$-3.41$-2.84$-21.34$-2.73$-2.75$-2.32$-1.09$-1.39$-1.87Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-2.59$0.65$-3.41$-2.84$-21.34$-2.73$-2.75$-2.32$-1.09$-1.39$-1.87Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$1.84$1.99$0.00$0.00$0.00$0.00$0.04$0.04Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$11.40$11.00$12.60$11.96$6.12$3.87$4.50$4.54$4.83$5.35$5.43Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$35.81$37.47$24.47$9.73$16.71$10.56$10.70$11.71$14.04$14.78$14.84Book value / shareBVPS

The diluted share count moved ×2.38 into 2020 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

The diluted share count moved ×1.58 into 2021 — 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−11.9%/yr−5.1%/yr
EPS−9.1%/yr
Dividends / share−38.0%/yr (8-yr)
Capital spending / share−8.1%/yr−2.6%/yr
Book value / share−9.4%/yr−2.4%/yr

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetained

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

FY2016FY2025

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 $2.6B of profit but ($3.1B) of owner earnings: $5.7B less than the profit line, taken out by capital spending and the timing of cash.

FY2025FY2024FY2023FY2022FY2021
Reported net income$2.6B$2.5B$2.2B$1.8B($102M)
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items+$6.1B+$5.6B+$2.5B+$1.9B+$2.4B
Cash from operations$8.7B$8.0B$4.7B$3.7B$2.3B
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow−$11.8B−$10.4B−$9.7B−$9.6B−$7.7B
Owner earnings($3.1B)($2.3B)($5.0B)($5.9B)($5.4B)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue-12%-10%-20%-27%-26%

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 .

A regulated utility reads differently here. What it spends above depreciation goes into rate base, where the commission lets it earn the allowed return and recover the capital, with interest, over decades — growth that is financed, not taken out of owners' pockets this year. So the truth sits between the bridge's two ends: owner earnings excuses the build-out entirely, free cash flow charges it entirely, and the scorecard's utility-plant figure shows how fast the base earning that return is compounding.

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 →

The allowed return, earned and credited

  • Below the typical allowed band
    Median over 10 readable years · latest FY2025: 8.0% (net income $2.6B ÷ equity $32.5B)
    What this means

    A commission caps what a regulated utility may earn on shareholders' capital, so the question is not whether the return is high but whether the company actually earns what it is allowed — persistent under-earning means costs the regulator will not put in rates, and a return above the band usually means unregulated businesses in the mix. Read through the record, because a single year carries rate-case timing noise.

  • AFUDC in earnings
    Not enough data
    What this means

    The equity allowance for funds used during construction is not tagged in this filer's structured data — the construction credit, if any, lives in the 10-K's rate-matters note.

The invested base and the regulatory ledger

  • Net utility plant
    Not enough data
    What this means

    No undimensioned utility-plant figure is tagged in this filer's structured data.

  • Regulatory assets & liabilities $16.3B / —
    As filed
    Regulatory assets $16.3B · regulatory liabilities not tagged, as filed
    What this means

    The ledger of the regulatory relationship: assets are costs the commission has agreed the utility may collect from ratepayers in future rates, liabilities are amounts it must give back. Both are promises whose worth depends entirely on the commissions that made them — which is why they are shown as filed and never netted into earnings adjustments here.

Graham’s defensive tests · 2 of 4 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 · $24.9B
    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 Pass
    Debt ≤ 2× equity (Graham's utility test) · $58.2B vs $32.5B 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 Miss
    A profit every year (10-yr record) · 4 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 · 3 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
    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 $0.91/share (latest year $0.97), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $12.14/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 6 of 10
    What this means

    Lost money in 4 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 −10% → 16% (3-yr avg ends)
    What this means

    Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about −10% early to 16% lately, median 10% — pricing power intact or improving.

  • Reinvestment, incremental ROIC 12%
    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.

  • Worst year 2019 · −58.9% op. margin
    What this means

    Operations went underwater in 2019, understand why before trusting the good years.

  • Dividend record paid
    What this means

    Paid a dividend in 3 of the years on record.

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

Rate cases, in the filing’s words

A regulated utility does not set its own price. It asks a commission for one, case by case, and the commission grants some part of it. Below are the proceedings this filing puts on the record, quoted verbatim, largest dollars first. Nothing here is computed; every figure is the filer’s own sentence.

  • Transmission Owner Rate Caserequested by the filer
    revenue requirement$2.83 billion
    “In the filing, the Utility forecasted a 2024 retail electric transmission revenue requirement of $2.83 billion.”

Sentences from the Regulatory Matters and Pending Proceedings disclosures and the MD&A of the latest 10-K, largest dollars first, at most six. “Granted” marks a sentence in which the commission itself is the subject of the approving verb; everything else renders as a request, never as a decided outcome. A return on equity is shown only where the filer states one between 8 and 13 percent — the same figure in these filings also carries equity ratios and fair-value returns, and a number that must be interpreted before it can be believed is not shown at all. Nothing here says whether a case is still pending: filings state timings that are already past by the time they are read.

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$15.4B
  • Cash & short-term investments$972M
  • Receivables$1.9B
  • Inventory$70M
  • Other current assets$12.5B
Current liabilities$12.7B
  • Debt due within a year$1.1B
  • Accounts payable$3.0B
  • Other current liabilities$8.6B
Current ratio1.22×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio1.21×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.08×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital$2.7Bthe cushion left after near-term bills
Debt due this year vs. cash$1.1B due · $972M cash cash alone won't cover the maturities; it leans on refinancing or operating cash · both figures from the Jun 30, 2026 balance sheet
Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+0.1%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters1.0× → 1.2×
Deeper floors
Tangible book value$33.9Bequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Debt incl. operating leases$63.3B$485M of it operating leases

From the company's latest filing.

Regulatory matters, in the filing’s words

For a rate-regulated utility the commission’s pen writes the economics. Two things it wrote here, quoted verbatim from the 10-K, gravest dollars first: costs the commission disallowed, and catastrophe or retirement costs moved off the meter through securitization bonds. Nothing below is computed; every figure is the filer’s own sentence.

Disallowances the filing records

  • $173 millioncommission action
    “The final decision denied recovery of $173 million in vegetation management costs.”

Costs financed through securitization bonds

  • $ 5.5 billion$ 7.5 billion$ 2.0 billionrequest or proceeding
    “Upon issuance of senior secured recovery bonds in May 2022 ("inception"), the Utility recorded a $ 5.5 billion SB 901 securitization regulatory asset reflecting PG&E Wildfire Recovery Funding LLC's right to recover $ 7.5 billion in wildfire claims costs associated with the 2017 Northern California wildfires, partially offset by the $ 2.0 billion in required upfront shareholder contributions to the customer credit trust.”
  • $ 7.5 billionrequest or proceeding
    “(6) In connection with the SB 901 securitization, the CPUC authorized the issuance of recovery bonds to finance $ 7.5 billion of claims associated with the 2017 Northern California wildfires.”
  • $ 7.5 billionrequest or proceeding
    “In 2022, PG&E Wildfire Recovery Funding LLC issued an aggregate $ 7.5 billion of senior secured recovery bonds.”

Sentences from the Regulatory Matters disclosures and MD&A of the latest 10-K, largest dollars first, at most three to a lane. “Commission action” and “bonds issued” mark sentences that carry the completed act in the filer’s own verb; everything else renders as a recording, request, or proceeding — never as a decided outcome. A filer with no qualifying sentence shows nothing here.

How the cash was used, 2016–2025

Over the record, the business generated $28.3B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a reinvestor, most operating cash is plowed back into the business.

  • Reinvested$81.0B · 286%
  • Dividends$2.0B · 7%
  • Returned to owners$2.0B

    $2.0B as dividends and $0 as buybacks.

  • Source of funding−$54.7B

    Reinvestment and shareholder returns ran $54.7B beyond the operating cash the business generated, so the gap was financed off the balance sheet: debt rose from $16.9B to $62.8B.

  • Net change in share count355.9%

    The diluted count rose from 501M to 2284M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.

  • Dividend record$0.04/sh

    Paid in 3 of the years on record, the per-share dividend shrinking about 47% a year. It was cut at least once along the way.

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.

  • Insider ownership<1%

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

What an owner would ask, FY2025

read the 10-K →
  • Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
    Management names Revenue recognition, Pension & retirement, 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, Multi-Utilities

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each column names the period it is read over; the group median at the foot is the line to read each figure against.

CompanyRevenuelatest FY, USDROEmedian over the recordPlant growthannualized over the recordDividend / cashmedian over the record
DUKDuke Energy Corp$32.2B7%5.2%33%
PCGPG&E Corp.$24.9B8%0%
EXCExelon Corporation$24.3B9%1.8%27%
EDConsolidated Edison Inc.$16.9B8%5.9%30%
XELXcel Energy Inc.$14.7B10%25%
PEGPublic Service Enterprise Group Incorporated$12.2B11%4.1%32%
WECWEC Energy Group Inc.$9.8B11%33%
AEEAmeren Corporation$8.8B10%24%
Group median10%28%
IV

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

PG&E Corp. is profitable, but owner earnings are negative this year because capital spending currently outruns operating cash, a build-out, so the owner-earnings reverse-DCF has no positive base to grow. We read the price from both ends instead: type a price to see the steady-state profitability it demands, then set the mature margin you would believe and weigh the two against each other. Nothing leaves your browser unless you enter it in your notebook.

$
The assumptions

Revenue, delivered6%/yr’20→’25

Enter a price to run it.

Owner earnings it must reach
Margin the price demands
Owner-earnings margin today−16%

Two reads of one future. From your price: the owner earnings the company must reach, valued at a mature multiple and discounted back at your rate, expressed as the margin it implies on revenue grown at your rate. From your belief: the mature margin you would credit, set on the dial above. When the margin the price demands runs above the one you would believe, you are paying for a future taken on faith. For a deep cyclical at a trough, normalized through-cycle earnings are the better lens; this mode is for the genuinely unprofitable, and for the profitable business whose capital spending currently outruns its cash.

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "PG&E Corp. (PCG), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/PCG, data as of 2026-08-17.

Manual order: ← PCB its page in the Manual PCOR →

Industry order: ← NWE the Multi-Utilities chapter PEG →