CQP · Energy(natural gas distribution) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
Cheniere Energy Partners, L.P. reported revenue of $10.8 billion in fiscal 2025, after growing 10.7% a year over the previous 9 years. Its operating margin widened from 26.9% in 2017 to 34.4%. Of the $21.4 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 28.3% went back into the business. On the accounting screens, it passes 6 of 7 Piotroski tests and its Beneish M-score is below the -1.78 line; 2 of the six cross-checks between its statements fire.
Revenue, fiscal 202510.8B+10.7% a year over 9 years
Operating margin34.4%gross margin —
Return on invested capital—
Free cash flow2.6B23.9% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA3.3×net debt 14.3B
Piotroski F-score6/7tests of improvement passed
Is it growing?
Revenue and the operating income it turns into. Growth that does not reach operating income is growth bought with margin.
RevenueOperating income
05.0B10.0B15.0B20.0B
2017Revenue 4.3BOperating income 1.2B
2018
2018Revenue 6.4BOperating income 2.0B
2019Revenue 6.8BOperating income 2.0B
2020Revenue 6.2BOperating income 2.1B
2021Revenue 9.4BOperating income 2.6B
2022Revenue 17.2BOperating income 3.4B
2023Revenue 9.7BOperating income 5.0B
2024Revenue 8.7BOperating income 3.3B
2025Revenue 10.8BOperating income 3.7B
2017201820182019202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
-14.5%
+11.8%
+10.7%
Operating income
+3.1%
+11.8%
+13.8%
Net income
+6.1%
+20.4%
+22.2%
Falling shares are buybacks: each remaining share owns more of the company.
Does it earn more than its capital costs?
Margins say how much of each sale is kept; return on invested capital says how much the business earns on the money it needs to operate. Growth only creates value when that return is above the cost of the capital.
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
—
Return on assets
17.1%
Asset turnover
0.62×
Overheads (SG&A)
1.0% of revenue
Is the profit cash, and where does the cash go?
Net income is an accounting opinion; free cash flow is what was left in the bank after investing. Stock-based pay does not leave the bank — shareholders pay it through dilution — so it is shown taken off as well.
Net incomeFree cash flowAfter stock-based pay
-2.0B02.0B4.0B6.0B
2017Net income 490.0MFree cash flow -313.0M
2018
2018Net income 1.3BFree cash flow 1.1B
2019Net income 1.2BFree cash flow 216.0M
2020Net income 1.2BFree cash flow 779.0M
2021Net income 1.6BFree cash flow 1.6B
2022Net income 2.5BFree cash flow 3.7B
2023Net income 4.3BFree cash flow 2.9B
2024Net income 2.5BFree cash flow 2.8B
2025Net income 3.0BFree cash flow 2.6B
2017201820182019202020212022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2017–2025
21.4B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 28%6.1B
Acquisitions 0%0
Dividends 0%0
Share buybacks 0%0
Kept, or used to pay down debt 72%15.4B
Per share
Shares outstanding
How strong is the balance sheet?
Debt is not bad in itself; debt the business cannot service in a bad year is. Net debt is debt minus cash, and below zero the company holds more cash than it owes.
Net debt
05.0B10.0B15.0B20.0B
2017Net debt 16.0B
2018
2018Net debt 16.1B
2019Net debt 15.8B
2020Net debt 16.4B
2021Net debt 16.3B
2022Net debt 15.3B
2023Net debt 15.3B
2024Net debt 14.8B
2025Net debt 14.3B
2017201820182019202020212022202320242025
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
3.3×
Interest coverage
5× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
0.78 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
— collects in 0d
Three classic screens of the accounts
Each asks a different question of the same statements — is it improving, does it look like a company heading for distress, do the accounts resemble ones that were manipulated. None is a verdict; each shows what moves it.
Piotroski F-score
Is the business improving? Nine yes-or-no tests, this year against last.
6of 7 tests passed
✓ProfitableReturn on assets above zeropassed
✓Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zeropassed
✓Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year beforepassed
✕Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals)failed
✓Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fellpassed
✓More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year beforepassed
–No new sharesShare count did not grow — not reportedno data
–Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year before — not reportedno data
✓Sells more per assetAsset turnover higher than a year beforepassed
Where it misleads: it measures change, not level. An excellent business that stood still for a year scores low; a poor one recovering from a disaster scores high.
Altman Z''-score
Does the balance sheet look like those of companies that went bankrupt?
The accounts lack a line it needs (retained earnings, current assets or liabilities).
Beneish M-score
Do the accounts resemble those of companies that manipulated their earnings?
-2.58below the -1.78 line
-1.78
Receivables vs sales 0.00+0.00
Gross margin slipping 1.00 (not reported, set to 1)+0.53
Soft assets 2.28+0.92
Sales growth 1.24+1.10
Slower depreciation 0.96+0.11
Overheads vs sales 0.85-0.15
Profit not in cash 0.01+0.06
Leverage rising 0.96-0.32
Where it misleads: fast growth and acquisitions. Sales growth carries a heavy weight, so a company growing 50% a year scores like a suspect without having done anything. It is a screen from a 1999 study, not an accusation.
Where the statements disagree
Cross-checks between the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow for the latest year, each with the benign reading and the worrying one.
Capital spending (199M) is well below depreciation (688M).
Benign
Mature assets, or a business that has become less capital-intensive.
Worrying
Under-investing: today's profit is being held up by consuming tomorrow's capacity.
Net debt is 3.3 times EBITDA.
Benign
A stable sector with predictable cash flows and comfortable maturities.
Worrying
Little room if earnings fall; the maturity schedule is what to check.
What is it worth, under which assumptions?
A company is worth the cash it will generate, brought back to today. This model projects revenue with growth that fades over the years, applies a free cash flow margin, and discounts the result at the cost of capital. Every assumption says where it came from, and all of them can be changed.
The SEC accounts lack the lines needed for revenue, free cash flow or the share count, so there is no DCF for this company.
What it has filed lately
The last twelve months at the SEC, most important first: annual and quarterly reports, events, large holders and insiders.
Accounts from the company's own SEC filings; lines some companies do not report are shown as a dash rather than estimated. The risk-free rate is the 10-year US Treasury yield. A DCF is a way of making assumptions explicit, not a forecast: it states what the company would be worth if the assumptions held. The scores are screens that point where to look, not verdicts. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.