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XEL, Xcel Energy Inc.

Multi-Utilities capital-intensive Regulated utilityCapital build-out

Xcel Energy provides a comprehensive portfolio of energy-related products and services to approximately 3.9 million electric customers and 2.2 million natural gas customers through four utility subsidiaries.

Native load Demand of retail and wholesale customers that a utility has an obligation to serve under statute or contract NAV Net asset value NEIL Nuclear Electric Insurance Ltd.

Xcel Energy Inc. serves customers in eight states, including portions of Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K

XEL · Xcel Energy Inc.

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025

$14.7B

+9.1% YoY · 5% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $14.6B 5-yr avg $14.2B

Gross margin 74%

Operating margin 19.1% 5-yr avg 17.0%

ROIC 5% 5-yr avg 6%

Owner-earnings margin 13% 5-yr avg 10%

Free cash flow margin −53% 5-yr avg −18%

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. Capital build-out. Capital spending has surged to 74% of sales, today's earnings are charged less depreciation than tomorrow's will be.
What moves the needle: Gross margin has run about 67% and operating margin about 18% through the cycle, a wide spread between price and the cost of what it sells — whether that advantage is durable pricing power or a margin that can erode is the question the record is for. That margin has stayed fairly steady relative to where it runs (16%–20% over the years), so unit growth and cost discipline, not a moving line, are the lever. The cash cycle has run negative through the cycle (a median of −36 days): the operation is paid before it pays, so working capital releases cash as the business grows rather than tying it up. Read this kind of business on rate base and the allowed return. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on supplier & input dependence, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?: Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median 6%, above 15% in 0 of 10 years). By owner earnings: roughly 13% 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.

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.

Most recent quarterly filing 10-Q filed Jul 30, 2026 Source at SEC EDGAR →

Revenue down 5.1% year over year; operating income up 22.4%

figures computed from the filing's XBRL

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
$11.1B	$11.4B	$11.5B	$11.5B	$11.5B	$13.4B	$15.3B	$14.2B	$13.4B	$14.7B	$14.6B	RevenueRevenue
$7.4B	$7.6B	$7.7B	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	$10.8B	Gross profitGross prof.
67%	67%	67%	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	74%	Gross marginGross mgn
$2.2B	$2.2B	$2.0B	$2.1B	$2.1B	$2.2B	$2.4B	$2.5B	$2.4B	$2.6B	$2.8B	Operating incomeOp. inc.
20.2%	19.5%	17.0%	18.2%	18.4%	16.4%	15.9%	17.5%	17.8%	17.6%	19.1%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$1.7B	$1.7B	$1.4B	$1.5B	$1.5B	$1.5B	$1.6B	$1.6B	$1.5B	$1.8B	—	Pretax incomePretax
$1.1B	$1.1B	$1.3B	$1.4B	$1.5B	$1.6B	$1.7B	$1.8B	$1.9B	$2.0B	$2.2B	Net incomeNet inc.
34%	32%	13%	9%	-0%	-5%	-8%	-9%	—	—	—	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$3.1B	$3.1B	$3.1B	$3.3B	$2.8B	$2.2B	$3.9B	$5.3B	$4.6B	$4.1B	$4.8B	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$1.3B	$1.5B	$1.7B	$1.8B	$2.0B	$2.1B	$2.4B	$2.5B	$2.8B	$3.0B	$2.9B	DepreciationDeprec.
$569M	$426M	$157M	$48M	($657M)	($1.6B)	($260M)	$1.1B	($97M)	($949M)	($441M)	Working capital & otherWC & other
$3.2B	$3.2B	$4.0B	$4.2B	$5.4B	$4.2B	$4.6B	$5.9B	$7.4B	$10.9B	$12.5B	CapexCapex
28.8%	28.4%	34.3%	36.6%	46.6%	31.6%	30.3%	41.2%	54.8%	74.4%	85.3%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$1.7B	$1.6B	$1.5B	$1.5B	$889M	$46M	$1.5B	$2.9B	$1.9B	$1.1B	$1.8B	Owner earningsOwner earn.
15.6%	14.3%	12.7%	12.8%	7.7%	0.3%	9.8%	20.1%	13.9%	7.6%	12.6%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($143M)	($118M)	($835M)	($962M)	($2.5B)	($2.1B)	($706M)	($527M)	($2.7B)	($6.8B)	($7.7B)	Free cash flowFCF
−1.3%	−1.0%	−7.2%	−8.3%	−21.9%	−15.3%	−4.6%	−3.7%	−20.3%	−46.5%	−52.6%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$681M	$721M	$730M	$791M	$856M	$935M	$1.0B	$1.1B	$1.2B	$1.3B	$1.4B	Dividends paidDiv. paid
$32M	$3M	$1M	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	BuybacksBuybacks
($3.3B)	($3.3B)	($4.0B)	($4.3B)	($4.7B)	($4.3B)	($4.7B)	($5.9B)	($7.4B)	($11.0B)	—	Investing cash flowInv. cash
$209M	$168M	$928M	$1.2B	$1.8B	$2.1B	$666M	$617M	$2.8B	$7.0B	—	Financing cash flowFin. cash
$0	($2M)	$64M	$101M	($119M)	$37M	($55M)	$18M	$50M	$95M	—	Change in cashΔ cash
6%	6%	6%	6%	6%	6%	6%	6%	5%	5%	5%	ROICROIC
10%	10%	10%	10%	10%	10%	10%	10%	10%	9%	9%	Return on equityROE
4%	4%	4%	4%	4%	4%	4%	4%	4%	3%	4%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$85M	$83M	$147M	$248M	$129M	$166M	$111M	$129M	$179M	$274M	$2.0B	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$776M	$797M	$860M	$837M	$916M	$1.0B	$1.4B	$1.3B	$1.2B	$1.3B	$1.3B	ReceivablesReceiv.
$604M	$610M	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	$745M	InventoryInvent.
$1.0B	$1.2B	$1.2B	$1.3B	$1.2B	$1.4B	$1.8B	$1.7B	$1.8B	$2.3B	$2.3B	Accounts payablePayables
$335M	$164M	($377M)	($457M)	($321M)	($391M)	($431M)	($353M)	($532M)	($977M)	($323M)	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$2.8B	$3.0B	$3.1B	$3.1B	$3.3B	$4.2B	$5.1B	$4.1B	$4.3B	$5.0B	$6.1B	Current assetsCur. assets
$3.2B	$4.1B	$4.5B	$4.6B	$4.2B	$5.0B	$6.1B	$5.7B	$6.5B	$7.1B	$8.7B	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
0.9×	0.7×	0.7×	0.7×	0.8×	0.8×	0.8×	0.7×	0.7×	0.7×	0.7×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$32.8B	$34.3B	$36.9B	$39.5B	$43.0B	$45.5B	$48.3B	$51.6B	$57.2B	$65.6B	—	Net PP&ENet PP&E
$3.4B	$3.4B	$3.8B	$3.4B	$3.4B	$3.8B	$3.9B	$3.4B	$3.4B	$3.5B	—	Regulatory assetsReg. assets
$1.6B	$5.3B	$5.6B	$5.5B	$5.6B	$5.7B	$6.0B	$6.4B	$6.9B	$7.0B	—	Regulatory liabilitiesReg. liab.
$41.2B	$43.0B	$46.0B	$50.4B	$54.0B	$57.9B	$61.2B	$64.1B	$70.0B	$81.4B	$87.2B	Total assetsAssets
$14.2B	$14.5B	$15.8B	$17.4B	$19.6B	$21.8B	$22.8B	$24.9B	$27.3B	$31.8B	$37.2B	Total debtDebt
$14.1B	$14.4B	$15.7B	$17.2B	$19.5B	$21.6B	$22.7B	$24.8B	$27.1B	$31.6B	$35.2B	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
$647M	$663M	$700M	$773M	$840M	$842M	$953M	$1.1B	$1.3B	$1.5B	$1.6B	Interest expenseInt. exp.
3.5×	3.4×	2.8×	2.7×	2.5×	2.6×	2.5×	2.4×	1.9×	1.8×	1.7×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$11.0B	$11.5B	$12.2B	$13.2B	$14.6B	$15.6B	$16.7B	$17.6B	$19.5B	$23.6B	$24.1B	Shareholders’ equityEquity
0.4%	0.5%	0.4%	0.5%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.2%	0.2%	0.3%	0.3%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
											Per share
509M	509M	511M	520M	528M	540M	547M	552M	563M	589M	627M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$21.82	$22.40	$22.58	$22.17	$21.83	$24.87	$27.99	$25.74	$23.87	$24.90	$23.31	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$2.21	$2.26	$2.47	$2.64	$2.79	$2.96	$3.17	$3.21	$3.44	$3.43	$3.56	EPS (diluted)EPS
$3.40	$3.20	$2.86	$2.84	$1.68	$0.09	$2.73	$5.17	$3.33	$1.89	$2.93	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-0.28	$-0.23	$-1.63	$-1.85	$-4.77	$-3.81	$-1.29	$-0.95	$-4.84	$-11.59	$-12.27	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$1.34	$1.42	$1.43	$1.52	$1.62	$1.73	$1.85	$1.98	$2.09	$2.18	$2.18	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$6.28	$6.37	$7.74	$8.13	$10.17	$7.86	$8.48	$10.61	$13.08	$18.52	$19.88	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$21.65	$22.50	$23.92	$25.46	$27.60	$28.91	$30.48	$31.91	$34.67	$40.08	$38.37	Book value / shareBVPS

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+1.5%/yr	+2.7%/yr
Owner earnings / share	−6.3%/yr	+2.4%/yr
EPS	+5.0%/yr	+4.2%/yr
Dividends / share	+5.6%/yr	+6.1%/yr
Capital spending / share	+12.8%/yr	+12.7%/yr
Book value / share	+7.1%/yr	+7.7%/yr

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetained

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

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 earned $1.1B of owner earnings, the operating cash left after the $3.0B it takes just to hold its position. It put $7.9B more into growth; free cash flow, after that spending, was ($6.8B).

Reported net income$2.0B

Owner earnings$1.1B · 8% of revenue

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	$2.0B	$1.9B	$1.8B	$1.7B	$1.6B
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$3.0B	+$2.8B	+$2.5B	+$2.4B	+$2.1B
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$46M	+$33M	+$25M	+$20M	+$31M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$949M	−$97M	+$1.1B	−$260M	−$1.6B
Cash from operations	$4.1B	$4.6B	$5.3B	$3.9B	$2.2B
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume	−$3.0B	−$2.8B	−$2.5B	−$2.4B	−$2.1B
Owner earnings	$1.1B	$1.9B	$2.9B	$1.5B	$46M
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still	−$7.9B	−$4.6B	−$3.4B	−$2.2B	−$2.1B
Free cash flow	($6.8B)	($2.7B)	($527M)	($706M)	($2.1B)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	8%	14%	20%	10%	0%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position (here about $3.0B, roughly its depreciation, the rate its assets wear out). The other $7.9B of its capital spending is growth it chose, not upkeep it owed; charged only with the maintenance it must do, the business earns well more than the year's free cash flow shows. 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 $46M), owner earnings is nearer $1.1B.

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

Earned return on equity 10.1%

Earning the allowed return

Median over 10 readable years · latest FY2025: 8.5% (net income $2.0B ÷ equity $23.6B)

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 13.9%

Construction credit in earnings

Equity allowance for funds used during construction $281M ÷ net income $2.0B

What this means
While a plant is under construction the commission lets the utility credit itself the allowed return on the capital tied up — a real, allowed profit that arrives as a bookkeeping entry now and as cash only after the plant enters rates. A large share means heavy reinvestment at the allowed return, the thing Berkshire's utility letters prize; it also means that much of this year's earnings has not yet been collected from anyone.

The invested base and the regulatory ledger

Net utility plant —

On subsidiary axes only

What this means
This filer reports its utility plant only on subsidiary or segment axes that the SEC's structured data drops, so the figure is withheld rather than approximated from consolidated property, which includes what the regulator sets no return on. The property schedule in the 10-K carries it.
Regulatory assets & liabilities $3.5B / $7.0B

Owes ratepayers

Regulatory assets $3.5B · regulatory liabilities $7.0B · net $3.5B liability position, 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 · 5 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 · $14.7B

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) · $32.1B vs $23.6B 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 Pass

A profit every year (10-yr record) · no losses

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 · +62%

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 $3.06/share (latest year $3.23), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $37.80/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 10 of 10

What this means
Never lost money over the record, the earnings stability Graham insisted on.
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 19% → 18% (3-yr avg ends)

In the filing’s words The filing attributes gains to higher prices, but the margin in the record has not followed — the claim outruns the result here.

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin held roughly steady — about 19% early, 18% lately, median 18%.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC 4%

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 −1%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings shrank about 1% a year over the record.
Worst year 2022 · 15.9% op. margin

What this means
Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.
Share count +1.6%/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.

Rate cases, in the filing’s words

FY2025 10-Kthe filing, SEC EDGAR →

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.

2025 Colorado Electric Rate Caserequested by the filer
$356 millionpercent9.9%
“In November 2025, PSCo filed an electric rate case with the CPUC seeking an increase in revenue of $356 million (9.9%) ($526 million inclusive of rider roll-ins).”
Minnesota Electric Rate Casegranted by the commission
$192 million
“In December 2024, the MPUC approved interim rates of $192 million, effective Jan. 1, 2025.”
Colorado Natural Gas Rate Caserequested by the filer
$190 millionpercent11.6%
“In December 2025, PSCo filed a natural gas rate case with the CPUC seeking an increase in revenue of $190 million (11.6%).”
2025 New Mexico Electric Rate Caserequested by the filer
$175 millionpercent16.7%
“In November 2025, SPS filed an electric rate case with the NMPRC seeking a revenue increase of $175 million (16.7%).”
Wisconsin Electric and Natural Gas Rate Casegranted by the commission
$126 millionreturn on equity9.8%
“In December 2025, the PSCW issued final written approval on NSP-Wisconsin's request, with a final rate increase of $126 million for the electric utility ($68 million in 2026, with an incremental $58 million in 2027) and $22 million for the natural gas utility ($18 million in 2026, with an incremental $4 million in 2027), based on a ROE of 9.8% and an equity ratio of 52.5%.”
Colorado Natural Gas Rate Casegranted by the commission
$125 million
“In October 2024, as modified on ARRR in January 2025, the CPUC issued an order including an annual revenue increase of approximately $125 million, inclusive of $15 million of accelerated depreciation.”

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$6.1B

Cash & short-term investments$2.0B
Receivables$1.3B
Inventory$745M
Other current assets$2.1B

Current liabilities$8.7B

Debt due within a year$250M
Accounts payable$2.3B
Other current liabilities$6.1B

Current ratio0.70×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio0.62×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.23×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital($2.6B)the cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$250M due · $2.0B 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−5.1%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters0.9× → 0.7×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$24.1Bequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Debt incl. operating leases$38.1B$866M of it operating leases

Deferred revenue$123Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2016–2025

Over the record, the business generated $35.6B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a reinvestor, most operating cash is plowed back into the business.

Reinvested$53.0B · 149%
Dividends$9.3B · 26%
Buybacks$36M · 0%

Returned to owners$9.3B
64% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $9.3B as dividends and $36M as buybacks.
Source of funding−$26.7B
Reinvestment and shareholder returns ran $26.7B beyond the operating cash the business generated, so the gap was financed off the balance sheet: debt rose from $14.2B to $37.2B.
Average price paid for buybacks$38.89
Across the years where the filing reports a share count, 1M shares were bought for $35M, about $38.89 each.
Net change in share count23.2%
The diluted count rose from 509M to 627M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
Dividend record$2.18/sh
Paid in 10 of the years on record, the per-share dividend growing about 6% a year. It was never cut over the span.
Return on what it retained6%
Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($6.1B over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $339M, so each retained $1 added about 0.06 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 year	Pay, as filed	“Actually paid”	Owner earnings
2021	$8.4M	$6.4M	$46M
2021	$12.8M	−$963k	$46M
2022	$10.3M	$9.9M	$1.5B
2023	$21.4M	$18.1M	$2.9B
2024	$12.9M	$20.7M	$1.9B
2025	$16.0M	$28.4M	$1.1B

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.

CEO pay ratio108:1
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$46M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares in fiscal 2025, 0.3% of revenue, equal to 1.8% 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 Pension & retirement, 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, 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.

Company	Revenuelatest FY, USD	ROEmedian over the record	Plant growthannualized over the record	Dividend / cashmedian over the record
PCGPG&E Corp.	$24.9B	8%	—	0%
EDConsolidated Edison Inc.	$16.9B	8%	5.9%	30%
XELXcel Energy Inc.	$14.7B	10%	—	25%
SREDBA Sempra	$13.7B	9%	—	31%
PEGPublic Service Enterprise Group Inc	$12.2B	11%	4.1%	32%
WECWEC Energy Group Inc.	$9.8B	11%	—	33%
AEEAmeren Corporation	$8.8B	10%	—	24%
CMSCMS Energy Corporation	$8.5B	13%	—	24%
Group median	—	10%	—	27%

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 Xcel Energy Inc. has delivered.

Xcel Energy Inc.’s latest year shows negative owner earnings, the mark of a build-out: total capital spending outruns the cash the business throws off today. So the tool opens on the steady-state base (maintenance capex in place of the build-out spend), the cash it would earn at rest; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, Xcel Energy Inc. earns about $1.9B on its 12.8% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 7.6% 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.

Base Normalize · through-cycle ($1.9B) Net of stock comp (−$48M TTM) Steady-state · maintenance capex ($1.8B)

—

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

9.0% = the 4.68% 10-year Treasury (Jul 30, 2026) + 4.32 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+18%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · ’16→’25−1%/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 (4.68%, as of Jul 30, 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.

Free cash flow ($7.7B) on 625M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-07-28; net debt $35.2B. The base opens on the steady-state figure (the latest year is negative on total capex mid-build-out); clear Steady-state to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. Capex ($12.5B) runs well above depreciation ($2.9B), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $1.8B, the cash it would throw off if it stopped expanding. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Weigh XEL against another business →

The owners of XEL: the meeting and the votes →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Xcel Energy Inc. (XEL), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/XEL, data as of 2026-07-18.

Manual order: ← X its page in the Manual XERS →

Industry order: ← WEC the Multi-Utilities chapter