Natural Resource Partners L.P. Stock price
Compare with Peer Group
📊 Peer Group
📈 What is it?
The peer group consists of the companies with the most similar business model. They serve as a benchmark for putting a stock into context.
🧮 How is it selected?
Based on similarity of business model, meaning companies from the same industry with comparable products and a similar customer base. That's the only way to compare apples to apples.
🏛️ Why does it matter?
Whether a stock is cheap or expensive is best judged by comparison. A P/E of 18 or an EV/FCF of 20 can look cheap or expensive depending on the yardstick. The peer group gives you the most accurate one: companies with a similar business model that operate under the same conditions.
🎯 What does it mean for investors?
When a metric sits below the peer average, the stock is valued more cheaply relative to its competitors, and above the average more expensively. A discount to the peer group can be an opportunity, but it can also have a reason (for example lower growth). The comparison is a starting point, not a verdict.
Is Natural Resource Partners L.P. a Top Scorer Stock based on the Dividend, High-Growth-Investing or Leverman Strategy?
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Key metrics
📘 Market Capitalization
📈 What is it?
Market capitalization shows how much a company is currently worth on the stock market.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It helps classify companies by size (Large, Mid, Small Cap) and indicates their market presence and relative stability.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Large-cap companies tend to be more stable, often pay dividends, but may grow more slowly.
- Smaller firms may offer higher growth potential but come with more volatility.
- Market capitalization is a useful indicator of company size — but not a measure of whether a stock is undervalued or overvalued.
📘 Enterprise Value (EV)
📈 What is it?
Enterprise Value represents the total cost to acquire a company — including its debt and excluding its cash reserves.
🧮 How is it calculated?
(= Market Cap + Net Debt)
🏛️ Why is it important?
EV gives a more complete picture of a company's value than market cap alone and is used in key valuation ratios like EV/FCF or EV/Sales.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Enterprise Value shows the true cost of buying a company, including all financial obligations.
- It is more accurate than just looking at market cap, especially when comparing companies with different levels of debt or cash.
- Professional investors prefer EV-based multiples because they better reflect the company’s full financial footprint.
📘 Net Debt
📈 What is it?
Net Debt shows how much debt remains after subtracting a company’s available cash reserves.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It indicates how dependent a company is on borrowed money and how easily it can service its debt in the short term.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Low or negative net debt signals financial strength and flexibility.
- Companies with strong cash positions are better positioned in crises.
- High net debt increases financial risk — especially in environments with rising interest rates or economic downturns.
📘 Cash
📈 What is it?
Cash represents all liquid assets a company can access immediately — including cash, bank deposits, and short-term investments.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It reflects a company’s financial flexibility and resilience — enabling investments, buybacks, or buffer in downturns.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A strong cash position means greater room for maneuver and crisis resistance.
- Cash-rich companies can invest, pay down debt, or repurchase shares.
- But excess idle cash might indicate a lack of growth opportunities.
📘 Shares Outstanding
📈 What is it?
Shares outstanding represent the total number of a company’s shares currently held by investors — excluding treasury stock.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It’s the basis for key metrics like Earnings Per Share (EPS), Market Capitalization, or the Price/Earnings ratio (P/E).
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Fewer shares in circulation typically increase earnings per share — making each share more valuable.
- Share buybacks reduce the number of shares and boost per-share metrics.
- Issuing new shares does the opposite — diluting shareholder value and lowering per-share figures.
📘 Price-to-Earnings Ratio (P/E)
📈 What is it?
The P/E ratio shows how many times a company's earnings per share are reflected in its current share price — in other words, how "expensive" the stock appears relative to its profits.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The P/E ratio is one of the most widely used valuation metrics. It helps investors assess whether a stock appears cheap or expensive compared to its earnings power.
🧮 Calculation
📊 P/E (TTM) = Based on earnings from the last 12 months (Trailing Twelve Months):🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low P/E may indicate undervaluation — or signal underlying issues.
- A high P/E may reflect strong growth expectations — or an overvalued stock.
📘 Price-to-Sales Ratio (P/S)
📈 What is it?
The P/S ratio shows how much investors are paying for $1 of the company’s revenue – regardless of profitability.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
P/S is especially useful for evaluating growth companies or businesses not yet profitable. It reflects how the market values the company’s sales.
🧮 Calculation
Market Cap = $1.64b | Revenue (TTM) = $178.95m
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low P/S may indicate undervaluation — or low profitability.
- A high P/S can reflect strong growth expectations — or excessive optimism.
- Especially helpful when evaluating companies where profits are low, volatile, or negative.
📘 Enterprise Value to Sales (EV/Sales)
📈 What is it?
EV/Sales shows how much investors are paying for $1 of revenue — considering not just equity, but also debt and cash. It’s the capital structure–adjusted version of the P/S ratio.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It’s ideal for comparing companies with different levels of debt. It reflects a company's true cost relative to its revenue.
🧮 Calculation
Enterprise Value = $1.60b | Revenue (TTM) = $178.95m
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- EV/Sales allows for capital structure–neutral company comparisons.
- A lower ratio may indicate undervaluation; a higher one may signal strong growth expectations or overvaluation.
- Especially helpful when evaluating high-growth companies with low or negative earnings.
📘 Enterprise Value to Free Cash Flow (EV/FCF) | ex SBC
📈 What is it?
EV/FCF compares a company’s enterprise value with its free cash flow. The metric therefore shows the multiple of current free cash flow at which a company is valued. EV/FCF ex SBC additionally accounts for stock-based compensation (SBC). While SBC does not represent a direct cash outflow, issuing shares as compensation can dilute existing shareholders. Therefore, SBC is deducted from free cash flow in this adjusted version.
🧮 How is it calculated?
EV/FCF ex SBC = Enterprise Value ÷ (Free Cash Flow (TTM) − SBC)
🏛️ Why is it important?
EV/FCF provides a valuation based on free cash flow and therefore complements earnings-based valuation metrics such as the P/E ratio. The ex SBC version additionally accounts for the economic impact of stock-based compensation and provides a more conservative view from a shareholder perspective.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low EV/FCF means that enterprise value is low relative to current free cash flow. The reasons should always be considered in the context of the company and its industry.
- A high EV/FCF means that enterprise value is high relative to current free cash flow. This can, for example, reflect high growth expectations or temporarily weak cash generation.
- When SBC is positive and adjusted free cash flow remains positive, EV/FCF ex SBC is generally higher than the standard EV/FCF.
- The metric is particularly useful for companies with relatively stable and predictable cash flows.
- If free cash flow is negative or very low, EV/FCF has limited usefulness and should not be interpreted like a standard valuation multiple.
📘 Price-to-Book Ratio (P/B)
📈 What is it?
The P/B ratio compares a company’s market value to its book value — showing how much investors are paying for each dollar of net assets.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
P/B is commonly used for asset-heavy industries like banks or industrials. It helps assess whether a stock is trading above or below its net asset value.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A P/B below 1 may signal undervaluation — or weak profitability.
- A P/B above 1 implies the market expects future value creation (e.g., brand, IP, growth).
- Best used for companies with tangible assets and strong balance sheets.
📘 Dividend per Share (DPS)
📈 What is it?
Dividend per Share shows how much cash a company pays out to shareholders for each share they own – usually on an annual or quarterly basis.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
DPS is the absolute value of the payout per share – crucial for income-focused investors and dividend strategies.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A stable or growing DPS often signals a strong, shareholder-friendly business.
- DPS alone doesn’t tell you how attractive the payout is – the stock price also matters (→ see Dividend Yield).
- Long-term dividend growth is often a hallmark of high-quality companies – like the dividend aristocrats.
📘 Dividend Yield
📈 What is it?
Dividend yield shows how large a company’s dividend is in relation to its current share price.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It allows investors to compare dividend payouts across stocks, regardless of price or payout size.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A stable yield can reflect reliable distributions.
- Comparing 1Y and 5Y yield shows whether dividend growth keeps pace with stock price appreciation.
- A low yield isn’t always negative – it can signal strong past performance or growth focus.
📘 Dividend Growth
📈 What is it?
Dividend growth shows how much a company has increased its dividend per share over time.
🧮 How is it calculated?
5Y: Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)
🏛️ Why is it important?
Consistently rising dividends are often a sign of financial strength and shareholder orientation – especially relevant for long-term investors.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Stable dividend growth is a sign of sustainable earning power.
- High dividend growth can significantly boost your total return:
- If a company pays $1 in dividends and increases it by 15% annually over 5 years, you’ll receive $2 per share in year 5 – twice as much as at the start!
📘 Payout Ratio
📈 What is it?
The payout ratio shows what percentage of a company’s earnings (per share) is distributed to shareholders as dividends.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It helps assess whether the dividend is sustainable – especially in relation to the company’s profitability.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low payout ratio means the company retains more earnings for reinvestment – typical for growth companies.
- A moderate payout (e.g. 25–50%) indicates a healthy balance between returns and reinvestment.
- High payout ratios may seem attractive but can carry risk if earnings decline.
📘 Consecutive Dividend Increases
📈 What is it?
This metric shows how many consecutive years a company has raised its dividend per share – without any cuts or pauses.
🧮 How is it calculated?
(Special dividends are not considered.)
🏛️ Why is it important?
A long track record of increases reflects financial strength, consistency, and shareholder commitment.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A long dividend increase streak builds confidence – especially in volatile markets.
- Such companies are seen as reliable and income-friendly investments.
- The longer the streak, the stronger the company’s dividend discipline.
📘 Revenue
📈 What is it?
Revenue shows how much a company earns in total from selling its products and services – the gross income before any costs are deducted.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Revenue is one of the key figures to assess a company’s size, market position, and growth potential.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growing revenue indicates rising demand and can be an early signal of future earnings growth.
- Comparing actual and expected revenue reveals trends in the market environment and analyst sentiment.
- Note: Strong revenue alone isn’t enough – margins and profitability matter just as much.
📘 EBITDA
📈 What is it?
EBITDA stands for “Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization.” It reflects a company’s operating profit before the effects of financing, taxes, and accounting depreciation.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBITDA is widely used to evaluate a company’s operating performance – especially across capital-intensive sectors or international comparisons.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high or growing EBITDA indicates strong operational profitability – independent of taxes, interest, or accounting methods.
- It’s especially useful for comparing companies across sectors or geographies.
- Important: EBITDA is not a net income figure – it excludes key costs like depreciation and interest.
📘 EBIT
📈 What is it?
EBIT stands for “Earnings Before Interest and Taxes.” It reflects a company’s operating profit after depreciation, but before interest and tax expenses.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBIT is a core profitability metric that shows how well the company performs in its main business operations – independent of capital structure and tax environment.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBIT indicates strong profitability from the company’s core business – before financial and tax effects.
- It allows better comparison between companies with different debt levels or tax structures.
- Compared to EBITDA, EBIT already accounts for depreciation and reflects capital intensity more clearly.
📘 Net Income
📈 What is it?
Net income is the company’s total profit – the amount left after all expenses, taxes, interest, and depreciation have been deducted.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net income is the most comprehensive measure of a company’s profitability – showing how much actual profit remains after all business and financing costs.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growing net income indicates that the company is managing all of its costs efficiently.
- It directly influences valuation metrics like P/E ratio and the company’s dividend capacity.
- Over time, net income trends reveal how resilient and profitable the business model really is.
📘 Free Cash Flow (FCF) | ex SBC
📈 What is it?
Free cash flow shows how much cash remains after a company has covered its operating and capital expenditures. FCF ex SBC additionally deducts stock-based compensation (SBC) to adjust the cash flow for the effect of non-cash SBC.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Free Cash Flow ex SBC = Operating Cash Flow − SBC − Capital Expenditures (CAPEX)
🏛️ Why is it important?
FCF reflects a company’s actual financial strength – independent of reported accounting earnings. It shows how much flexibility a company has for dividends, share buybacks, or debt reduction. FCF ex SBC also deducts stock-based compensation and shows how much cash generation remains after SBC.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- High free cash flow indicates that a company has strong financial strength – independent of reported earnings.
- It is often a solid basis for sustainable dividends and share buybacks.
- Declining FCF can be a warning sign, even if reported earnings remain stable.
📘 Revenue Growth
📈 What is it?
Revenue growth shows how much a company’s sales have changed compared to the previous year – both on a trailing basis (TTM) and based on forward projections.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected revenue ÷ Revenue in prior year − 1) × 100
Forward growth is based on analyst estimates for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Rising revenue signals growing demand, business expansion, and market share gains – especially important for growth-oriented companies.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growth is the engine of long-term value creation – especially in tech and growth sectors.
- What matters is not just current growth, but its sustainability.
- Forward projections reflect whether analysts expect continued momentum – or a slowdown.
📘 EBITDA Growth
📈 What is it?
EBITDA growth shows how much a company’s operating profit (before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) has increased or decreased compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected EBITDA ÷ EBITDA from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate is based on analyst projections for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Growing EBITDA indicates improving operational profitability – regardless of financing or accounting effects.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Strong EBITDA growth signals operational efficiency and scalability – especially during growth phases.
- EBITDA growth can be an early indicator of margin and earnings expansion – but should be assessed alongside revenue and EBIT.
📘 EBIT Growth
📈 What is it?
EBIT growth shows how much a company’s operating profit (after depreciation, but before interest and taxes) has increased compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected EBIT ÷ EBIT from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate is based on analyst projections for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBIT growth is a direct indicator of a company’s business performance – taking into account capital intensity through depreciation.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Rising EBIT signals improving operating profitability – even after accounting for depreciation.
- It’s especially important for evaluating companies with significant capital expenditures.
- Combined with revenue and EBITDA growth, EBIT growth provides a well-rounded view of operational progress.
📘 Net Income Growth
📈 What is it?
Net income growth shows how much a company’s bottom-line profit has increased or decreased compared to the previous year – both on a trailing basis (TTM) and based on analyst projections.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected net income ÷ Net income from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate reflects analysts’ expectations for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net income is the ultimate measure of profitability. Growing net income signals stronger efficiency, cost control, and sustainable earnings power.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Stronger net income boosts valuation, dividend potential, and investor confidence.
- If profits stall while revenue grows, it may signal margin pressure.
📘 Free Cash Flow Growth
📈 What is it?
Free cash flow (FCF) growth shows how a company’s available cash – after covering operating expenses and capital expenditures – has changed compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Free cash flow reflects real financial strength. Growing FCF indicates more flexibility for dividends, share buybacks, and reinvestment.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Declining FCF may point to rising investments, increasing costs, or weaker operating performance.
- Especially for dividend investors, FCF growth is critical – since dividends are paid from actual available cash.
- A negative trend isn't always bad, but it deserves closer attention.
📘 Gross Margin
📈 What is it?
Gross margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains after deducting the direct costs of goods sold (like materials and production). It represents the company’s “raw profit” before fixed costs, taxes, and interest.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Or simply: Gross Margin = Gross Profit ÷ Revenue × 100
🏛️ Why is it important?
Gross margin indicates how efficiently a company can produce or procure what it sells. It is a key measure of product-level profitability and pricing power.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high gross margin suggests strong pricing power and efficient production.
- Falling margins may signal rising input costs or competitive pressure.
- Compared to peers, gross margin offers insights into the quality of a business model.
📘 EBITDA Margin
📈 What is it?
The EBITDA margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains as operating profit before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.It reflects operating efficiency without being distorted by financing or accounting factors.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The EBITDA margin reveals how much operating income a company generates per dollar of revenue – independent of capital structure and tax effects.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBITDA margin reflects strong core profitability – before accounting distortions.
- It allows for effective comparisons across companies and sectors.
- A stable or growing margin signals efficient cost control and business scalability.
📘 EBIT Margin
📈 What is it?
The EBIT margin shows what percentage of revenue remains as operating profit after depreciation but before interest and taxes.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The EBIT margin reflects a company’s core profitability while accounting for capital intensity (e.g. machinery, infrastructure). It’s especially useful for comparing businesses with different levels of depreciation.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBIT margin shows that the company remains efficient even after factoring in depreciation.
- It’s especially relevant for capital-intensive industries.
- Stable or rising EBIT margins over time are a strong indicator of pricing power and business quality.
📘 Net Margin
📈 What is it?
Net margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains as bottom-line profit after deducting all costs, interest, taxes, and depreciation.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net margin reflects a company’s overall efficiency – across operations, financing, and taxation. It shows how much actual profit is generated from each dollar of revenue.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high net margin means the company is not only strong operationally but also manages financing and taxes efficiently.
- Peer comparisons reveal business quality and competitiveness.
- Declining margins despite revenue growth can be a red flag for rising costs or inefficiencies.
📘 Free Cash Flow Margin | ex SBC
📈 What is it?
The Free Cash Flow Margin shows how much free cash flow a company generates relative to its revenue. In simplified terms, free cash flow is calculated as operating cash flow minus capital expenditures. The Free Cash Flow Margin ex SBC additionally accounts for stock-based compensation (SBC). While SBC does not represent a direct cash outflow, issuing shares as compensation can dilute existing shareholders. Therefore, SBC is deducted from free cash flow in this adjusted metric.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Free Cash Flow Margin ex SBC = (Free Cash Flow − SBC) ÷ Revenue × 100
🏛️ Why is it important?
The Free Cash Flow Margin shows how efficiently a company converts its revenue into free cash flow. Strong free cash flow can provide financial flexibility for dividends, share buybacks, debt repayment, or further investments. The ex SBC version additionally accounts for the economic impact of stock-based compensation and therefore provides a more conservative view of cash generation from a shareholder perspective.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high Free Cash Flow Margin shows that a company converts a high proportion of its revenue into free cash flow.
- This can provide greater financial flexibility for dividends, share buybacks, debt repayment, or investments.
- The Free Cash Flow Margin ex SBC additionally accounts for potential shareholder dilution from stock-based compensation.
- The long-term trend is particularly important. Declining margins can, for example, result from higher investments, changes in working capital, or weaker operating performance.
📘 Equity Ratio
📈 What is it?
The equity ratio indicates what portion of a company’s total assets is financed by shareholders’ equity – in other words, how much it relies on its own capital.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
A high equity ratio reflects financial strength and stability, especially during downturns. It’s a key indicator of a company’s solvency and long-term risk profile.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Companies with high equity ratios are generally more resilient and less dependent on external debt.
- Low equity ratios can signal higher risk or aggressive financial strategies.
- Important: Always assess the equity ratio in combination with the return on equity (ROE). This shows not just how stable the company is – but also how efficiently it uses shareholder capital.
📘 Return on Equity (ROE)
📈 What is it?
Return on equity (ROE) shows how efficiently a company uses its shareholders’ equity to generate profit. In other words: how much net income is earned per dollar of equity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROE is a core profitability metric. It helps investors understand whether a company delivers attractive returns on the capital provided by its shareholders.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROE indicates that the company is using its capital efficiently and profitably.
- It’s especially meaningful for capital-intensive businesses or firms with high equity bases.
- Important: A very high ROE can also result from high debt levels – always interpret it alongside the equity ratio to assess financial health.
📘 Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)
📈 What is it?
ROCE measures how efficiently a company generates profits from its total capital – including both equity and interest-bearing debt.
🧮 How is it calculated?
It evaluates the return on all capital employed, regardless of how it’s financed.
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROCE is ideal for comparing companies with different financing structures. It shows how well management uses capital to create value for both shareholders and creditors.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROCE means the company uses its capital efficiently – regardless of whether it's funded by debt or equity.
- The higher the ROCE compared to peers, the more value the company creates with its invested capital.
- Especially relevant for capital-intensive sectors like industrials, energy, or infrastructure.
📘 Return on Invested Capital (ROIC)
📈 What is it?
ROIC measures how efficiently a company generates returns from the capital invested in its core operations – regardless of whether the capital comes from equity or debt.
🧮 How is it calculated?
- NOPAT = Net Operating Profit After Taxes
- Invested Capital = Operating assets minus non-interest-bearing liabilities
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROIC is one of the most accurate indicators of capital efficiency. Unlike return on equity, it is not distorted by leverage and shows how much value is created for all capital providers.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROIC shows how effectively a company uses the capital that is truly invested in its core operations.
- Unlike ROCE, ROIC focuses only on the capital that is actively used to run the business – and that requires a return (i.e. interest-bearing).
- Especially useful when comparing companies with large amounts of excess cash or non-interest-bearing liabilities – giving a more realistic picture of capital efficiency.
📘 Leverage Ratio (Debt-to-Equity)
📈 What is it?
The leverage ratio indicates how much a company relies on interest-bearing debt (such as loans and bonds) relative to its shareholders’ equity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
This ratio helps assess a company’s financial structure and risk profile. High leverage can enhance returns – but also increases exposure to interest rate changes and financial stress.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low leverage ratio signals financial strength and independence.
- A higher ratio can improve returns in good times but increases risk during downturns or rising interest rate periods.
- 👉 Always interpret in the context of industry, capital intensity, and interest rate environment.
📘 SBC | in % Revenue
📈 What is it?
SBC (Stock-Based Compensation) refers to equity-based compensation granted by a company to its employees and executives. The percentage shows SBC relative to revenue.
🧮 How is it calculated?
SBC as % of Revenue = (SBC ÷ Revenue) × 100
🏛️ Why is it important?
Stock-based compensation is a real cost factor for shareholders. It can increase the number of shares outstanding and therefore dilute existing shareholders. The percentage of revenue shows how heavily a company relies on equity-based compensation and how significant this form of compensation is relative to the size of the business.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A lower figure is generally positive: Stock-based compensation is relatively small compared with the company's revenue.
- A high figure can indicate greater reliance on stock-based compensation and a higher potential risk of dilution. However, it is also important to consider whether the company offsets dilution through share buybacks.
- The trend over time should also be considered. A high but declining percentage presents a different picture from a persistently high or increasing percentage.
- A single-digit SBC-to-revenue ratio is not unusual among many growth-oriented and technology companies.
📘 SBC as % of FCF
📈 What is it?
SBC (Stock-Based Compensation) refers to equity-based compensation granted by a company to its employees and executives. The percentage shows SBC relative to free cash flow (FCF).
🧮 How is it calculated?
SBC as % of FCF = (SBC ÷ Free Cash Flow) × 100
🏛️ Why is it important?
Stock-based compensation is a real cost factor for shareholders. It can increase the number of shares outstanding and therefore dilute existing shareholders. The percentage of free cash flow shows how significant SBC is relative to the cash generated by the company. Since SBC is non-cash compensation, it is typically not deducted as a cash outflow when calculating FCF.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A lower value is generally favorable. Stock-based compensation is relatively small compared with the company's cash generation.
- A high value means that SBC represents a significant portion of the company's reported free cash flow, even though SBC itself is non-cash.
- The higher the value, the more significant SBC can be as an economic cost to shareholders, particularly when it results in share dilution.
📘 SBC Growth 1Y
📈 What is it?
SBC Growth 1Y shows how much a company's stock-based compensation has changed compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
SBC Growth shows whether stock-based compensation is becoming more or less significant for shareholders. If SBC increases significantly, it can lead to greater shareholder dilution over time. At the same time, SBC is a non-cash expense that reduces earnings on the income statement but is added back in the cash flow statement.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high positive value is generally negative, as rising SBC can increase the burden on shareholders, particularly through potential dilution.
- What matters is whether the development of SBC is sustainable over the long term. Some level of SBC is common among many growth and technology companies.
📘 Share Count Growth 1Y
📈 What is it?
Share Count Growth 1Y shows how much the number of shares outstanding has increased or decreased over a one-year period.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The number of shares determines how many shares the company's earnings and assets are distributed across. If the share count decreases, existing shareholders' relative ownership increases. If it increases, existing shareholders are diluted. The metric therefore makes dilution and share buybacks directly visible.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A negative value is generally positive, as the number of shares outstanding is decreasing.
- A positive value indicates dilution of existing shareholders.
- A declining share count is not automatically positive: It also matters at what price the shares are repurchased and how the buybacks are financed.
📘 Shareholder Yield
📈 What is it?
Shareholder Yield measures how much capital a company returns to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks, relative to its market capitalization. It goes beyond dividend yield by also including share buybacks.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Dividend yield only tells part of the story. When a company buys back shares and the share count falls, each existing shareholder owns a larger part of the company. When the share count rises, for example through stock-based compensation or new share issuance, existing shareholders are diluted. Shareholder Yield combines both into one metric.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A higher Shareholder Yield indicates more capital being returned to shareholders.
- A negative value means the company issued more new shares than its dividends and buybacks make up for.
- Share buybacks are most beneficial when shares are repurchased at attractive valuations.
- Investors should also consider whether dividends and buybacks are sustainable over time.
📘 Earnings per share (EPS)
📈 What is it?
Earnings per Share (EPS) shows how much profit is attributable to a single share – and is one of the most important metrics for evaluating a company's performance.
🧮 How is it calculated?
The diluted share count reflects potential new shares that could be issued through options, convertible bonds, or other rights.
🏛️ Why is it important?
EPS is the basis for many key valuation metrics like P/E ratio, PEG ratio, or payout ratio. It enables comparisons of profitability across companies, regardless of their size.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- EPS captures per-share profitability and is especially useful for comparisons over time or with analyst estimates.
- Rising EPS may signal consistent growth or share buybacks.
- Important: Always use diluted EPS for more realistic valuations – especially in companies with stock-based compensation.
📘 Free cash flow per share (FCF per share)
📈 What is it?
Free Cash Flow per Share shows how much free cash flow a company generates per outstanding share – after investments, but before dividends or debt repayments.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Free cash flow is calculated as operating cash flow minus capital expenditures (CapEx).
🏛️ Why is it important?
FCF per Share reveals how much real cash is available per share – useful for dividends, buybacks, or reducing debt. Unlike net income, free cash flow is harder to manipulate and often seen as a more reliable metric.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- High FCF per share signals strong financial flexibility.
- It shows how much capital the company can effectively reinvest or return to shareholders.
- Particularly relevant for dividend payers and capital-efficient businesses.
📘 Short interest
📈 What is it?
Short interest indicates how many shares of a company are currently sold short – that is, borrowed and sold by investors who expect the price to decline.
🧮 How is it calculated?
It reflects the percentage of a company’s shares that are being shorted relative to the total shares available.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Short interest serves as a sentiment indicator: A high value may signal skepticism or bearish expectations – but also increases the potential for a short squeeze if prices rise unexpectedly.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Low short interest usually indicates market confidence in the company.
- High short interest can be a warning sign – or an opportunity if sentiment shifts.
- Especially relevant in volatile markets or ahead of key earnings releases.
📘 Employees
📈 What is it?
The employee count shows how many people a company employs worldwide – offering insights into its size, structure, and business model.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It helps assess operational scale, labor intensity, and cost structure. Combined with revenue and profit, it enables key metrics like revenue per employee or productivity.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high headcount can signal operational complexity – but also significant growth capacity.
- Revenue per employee is a key indicator of efficiency.
- Especially useful for comparing tech, industrial, or service-heavy companies.
📘 Revenue per employee
📈 What is it?
Revenue per employee indicates how much revenue a company generates on average per employee – a key measure of efficiency and productivity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
The employee count is typically taken from the most recent annual report.
🏛️ Why is it important?
This metric helps compare business models – especially between labor-intensive and technology-driven companies. A high value suggests automation, operational efficiency, or strong value creation per head.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high revenue per employee indicates a scalable and margin-strong business model.
- A low figure may reflect labor-intensive operations or lower value-add.
- Especially helpful when comparing tech companies to industrial or service sectors.
Natural Resource Partners L.P. Stock Analysis
Analyst Opinions
5 Analysts have issued a Natural Resource Partners L.P. forecast:
Analyst Opinions
5 Analysts have issued a Natural Resource Partners L.P. forecast:
Natural Resource Partners L.P. Events
Past Events
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NOV
4
Q3 2026 Earnings Call
8 days ago
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AUG
5
Q2 2026 Earnings Call
3 months ago
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MAY
6
Q1 2026 Earnings Call
6 months ago
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FEB
27
Q4 2025 Earnings Call
9 months ago
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NOV
4
Q3 2025 Earnings Call
about one year ago
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StocksGuide Free
Natural Resource Partners L.P. — Q3 2026 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Natural Resource Partners L.P. Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]
I will now hand the conference over to Tiffany Sammis, Investor Relations. Tiffany, please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to the Natural Resource Partners third quarter 2026 conference call. Today's call is being webcast, and a replay will be available on our website.
Joining me today are Craig Nunez, President and Chief Operating Officer; Chris Zolas, Chief Financial Officer; and Kevin Craig, Executive Vice President.
Some of our comments today may include forward-looking statements reflecting NRP's views about future events. These matters involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to materially differ from our forward-looking statements. These risks are discussed in NRP's Form 10-K and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason. Our comments today also include non-GAAP financial measures. Additional details and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in our third quarter press release, which can be found on our website.
I would like to remind everyone that we do not intend to discuss the operations or outlook for any particular coal lessee or detailed market fundamentals.
Now I would like to turn the call over to Craig Nunez, our President and Chief Operating Officer.
Thank you, Tiffany. Good morning, everyone. NRP generated $45 million of free cash flow in the third quarter of 2026 and $166 million of free cash flow over the last 12 months before the investment in our soda ash business earlier this year. Last quarter, I said that [ barring ] something unforeseen, we intended to raise distribution significantly in November. We are delivering on that. A decade of work to pay down debt and derisk the partnership has brought us to the point where we can pay out free cash flow beyond the unitholder tax liability. We generated $45 million of free cash in the quarter. We paid down $13 million of debt, leaving $32 million or $2.34 per unit available to distribute.
Our free cash flow can move around a lot from quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year. Our Board will decide on distributions each quarter weighing our results, our liquidity needs and other uses of cash, which could include unit repurchases or opportunistic acquisitions. If the Board decides to retain cash rather than pay it out, we will hold ourselves to the same test as always, more than $1 of intrinsic value per unit for every dollar we keep.
Last quarter, I said our Mineral Rights segment was our most dependable cash generator. It delivered again this quarter, producing $47 million of free cash flow and $185 million over the last 12 months. Spot prices for metallurgical coal bumped up modestly in the quarter before pulling back. Global steel demand remains weak, and that keeps a lid on prices. Similar story with thermal coal. Natural gas is cheap, power plants are sitting on plenty of coal, and we do not see anything on the horizon to change that. The geopolitical backdrop remains bumpy and diesel is up more than 75% this year which raises costs all along the supply chain and squeezes operator margins. For 2027, nothing we are watching points to a material change in coal pricing. If geopolitical conflicts drag on, prices can move in either direction, and I will not pretend to know which.
Now to Soda Ash. The picture is the same as a quarter ago, too much supply, too little demand and no quick fix. Increased natural soda ash exports from China are pushing older synthetic plants to modernize, shutdown or both. Producers are doing what you would expect. Running plants at lower rates, shedding higher-cost capacity, cutting discretionary spending and hunting for efficiencies. International prices have stopped falling, but have settled at levels that are below the cost of production of most producers. As we explained last quarter, domestic prices should move lower as contracts reset and the premium over international prices narrows. That will make 2027 harder than 2026.
Closures are beginning to occur, however, but slowly. We continue to think rebalancing the market will take years, not quarters. Our investment in Sisecam Wyoming is -- holds one of the lowest cost of soda ash operations in the world and low cost is what carries you through a downturn. Our managing partner continues to aggressively pursue cost savings while keeping operations safe and reliable and protecting the plant's competitive position. This cycle may take years to turn, but we are confident in the quality of the asset and its ability to generate competitive returns when the market returns to balance. So to sum it up, Mineral Rights keeps generating strong free cash flow. We have $14 million of debt left to repay next month, and we are finally at the point where we can return the cash this business generates to you, our partners, subject to the Board's quarterly decision.
With that, I'll turn it over to Chris.
Thank you, Craig. In the third quarter of 2026, NRP generated $27 million of net income, $44 million of operating cash flow and $45 million of free cash flow. Of these consolidated amounts, our Mineral Rights segment generated $37 million of net income, $46 million of operating cash flow and $47 million of free cash flow. When compared to the prior year third quarter, our Mineral Rights segment net income decreased $4 million primarily due to increased DD&A expense. Operating cash flow and free cash flow each increased $2 million as compared to the prior year period, primarily due to higher met coal pricing and volumes at certain properties and timing of payments, partially offset by lease amendment fees we received in the third quarter of last year. Regarding our met thermal coal royalty mix, met coal made up approximately 70% of our coal royalty revenues and 45% of our coal royalty sales volumes for the third quarter of 2026.
For our Soda Ash segment, net income for the third quarter decreased $2 million compared to the prior year quarter. This decrease was driven by lower sales prices due to the oversupplied international soda ash market and weakened demand for flat glass. Operating and free cash flow was flat when compared to the prior year period due to not receiving a distribution of third quarters of 2025 and 2026. NRP does not expect distributions from Sisecam Wyoming to resume until the sodas market demand rebounds where there is a significant supply response to this depressed market.
Moving to our corporate and financing results. Net income, operating cash flow and free cash flow for the third quarter of 2026, each improved $1 million as compared to the prior year period. These improvements were due to lower debt resulting in lower interest costs and less cash paid for interest. Regarding our quarterly distributions, in August, we paid the second quarter distribution of $0.75 per common unit. Also during the third quarter of this year, we fully repaid the remaining $13 million balance on our Opco credit facility. As a result, and consistent with our communications throughout the year, the partnership increased the distribution to $2.34 per common unit with respect to the third quarter of 2026.
In our recent earnings release, we have included a reconciliation of this Q3 distribution amount from the operating cash flow we generated in the third quarter.
And with that, I'll turn the call over to our operator for questions.
[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Robert Lu.
This is Robert Lu. I'm an independent investor in NRP for the last few years. I'm curious, you talked about the potential for share buybacks when you saw that the intrinsic value is below or above the current market price. I'm curious, would you be able to share your thoughts on that and where that might be?
No. We will not give you guidance on what we think is the intrinsic value of our units. But thank you for your support.
Yes. Thank you for following through on what you said you do and excited about the news today.
You bet. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Steven Balsam with Yellow Gate Capital.
2. Question Answer
I just wanted to say congratulations on reaching this point. It's really rare to see such a long-term decision taken and made and follow through consist really been fantastic [indiscernible] on long-term sale trend feels great to get to this point. I'd like to just one question regarding...
Thank you for being with us for a long time and supporting us. We couldn't have done it without all of our partners.
You bet. I was hoping maybe you guys could comment a little bit on potential activities that you're looking at, whether it be carbon sequestration or any other sort of actions that your debt that are going on with respect to the various properties.
I would tell you that our activities with respect to CO2 sequestration, solar, geothermal, all of the renewable type activities that we look at they're not changing at all as a result of the change in our capital structure and the change in our cash allocation strategy, capital deployment strategy here now that we've paid off our debt or about to pay off all of our debt. There's no changes to that. We're attempting to maximize the acreage that we have, find lessees that are willing to come in and and develop projects on our acreage for all the various types of initiatives. And we've been doing that even before we've reached this point with our -- with respect to our capital structure.
Excellent. I love the approach and really happy with the approach taken on it as far. And I realize there's nothing -- no statements made about future distribution like the way it was set out in the financials being that variable distribution paid out of free cash flow feels great. Congratulations, again.
Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Craig Nunez for closing remarks.
Thank you, operator. And again, thank all of you for your support over the years. We're still on the journey. But being able to raise our distribution today and pay out a larger share of our free cash flow now that we have practically delever the entire balance sheet. It was a joint effort, and we couldn't have done it without you. So now we got to look ahead and add value in the next period. So with that, thank you, and have a great day.
This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.
Natural Resource Partners L.P. — Q2 2026 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Thank you. Hello everyone, thank you for joining us and welcome to the Natural Resource Partners LP Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. now hand the conference over to Tiffany Samas, Investor Relations. Tiffany, please go ahead.
Thank you and good morning and welcome to the natural resource partners. Second quarter 2026 conference call. Today's call is being webcast and a replay will be available on our website. Joining me today are Craig Nunez, President of the Chief Operating Officer, Chris Zolas, Chief Financial Officer, and Kevin Craig, Executive Vice President. Some of our comments today may include forward-looking statements reflecting NRP's views about future events. These matters involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to materially differ from our forward-looking statements. These risks are discussed in NRP's Form 10-K and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.
Our comments today also include non-GAAP financial measures. Additional details and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in our second quarter press release, which can be found on our website. I would like to remind everyone that we do not intend to discuss the operations or outlook for any particular Coal Lessee or detailed market fundamentals. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Craig Nunez, our President and Chief Operating Officer. Thank you, Tiffany, and good morning, everyone. NRP generated $42 million.
of free cash flow in the second quarter and 163 million of free cash flow over the last 12 months before the 39 million dollars we put to work in our sodash business back in the first quarter the The world has been noisy recently. Geopolitical conflict, shipping disruptions, tariff fights. I don't know how those will resolve. What I do know is that we paid off our bank revolver last month and have only $14 million of debt outstanding. Barring something unforeseen, we intend to raise and freeze distributions significantly in November. Coal, both metallurgical and thermal, has settled down and shown modest improvement off the lows, although I can't point to any single event that's likely to push prices sharply higher from here. not in the business of predicting commodity prices anyway. What matters more is that our mineral rights segment just keeps doing what it's done for years, reducing cash, rain or shine.
Through every major coal cycle, it has been the most dependable cash generator we've ever owned. On thermal coal, if oil prices remain high, that tends to bring more associated natural gas production along with it, which puts downward pressure on thermal coal prices in North America. Cheaper oil would work the other way. Meanwhile, renewables keep getting more competitive, and that will pose a long-term headwind for thermal coal. Now so dash. The honest picture is that global supply still exceeds demand, and we don't see a quick fix. The encouraging sign is that international prices after a long and painful decline appear to have found the floor, it's a floor below most producers cost of production, which tells you the downturn still has room to run. Domestic SODASH prices have always traded at a premium to international prices due to transportation costs, trade frictions, and the value domestic customers place on reliable supply.
That premium is unusually wide right now, mostly because domestic contracts get set once a year, while international prices move with speed. spot market. As a result, domestic prices haven't caught up with how far international prices have fallen. As contracts for 2027 deliveries get negotiated this year, we expect that gap to close, which means lower domestic prices ahead. We've seen this movie before. The 1999 to 2004 downturn looked a lot like today's market, and it eventually corrected as supply and demand found their way back into balance. We're starting to see hints of that with recent announcements of extended closures amounting to roughly 4% of global capacity. markets have a way of curing their own excesses given time. So to sum it up, Despite challenges for all three of our key commodities, NRP is generating strong free cash flow. We're almost debt free. And barring the unexpected, we plan to raise distribution significantly starting in November.
So with that, I'll turn it over to Chris. Thank you, Craig.
In the second quarter of 2026, NRP generated $25 million of net income, $41 million of operating cash flow, and $42 million of free cash flow. Of these second quarter consolidated amounts, our mineral rights segment generated $36 million of net income and $45 million of operating and pre-cash flow. When compared to the prior year, second quarter. Mineral rights segment net income decreased by 3M primarily due to increased expense caused by revised mine plans at certain long wall, thermal coal mines that resulted in higher per ton depletion rates. This decrease in net income was partially offset by increased revenues, primarily due to increased metallurgical and thermal volumes in pricing at certain properties. Operating cash flow and free cash flow each decrease 1M as compared to the prior year period, primarily due to higher recoupments during the three months ended June 30th, 2026. Partial offset by increased cash from minimum payments during the quarter.
Regarding our met thermal coal royalty mix. Metallurgical coal made up approximately 70% of our core royalty revenues and 45% of core royalty sales volumes in the 2nd quarter of 2026. Our soda ash segments second quarter net income decreased 7 million compared to prior year quarter. This decrease was driven by lower sales prices due to the oversupplied international soda ash market and weakened demand for black glass. Operating in free cash flow each decreased $5 million when compared to the prior year These decreases were due to not receiving a distribution in the second quarter of 2026 as compared to receiving a 5 million distribution in the second quarter of last year. NRP does not expect distributions from Syster Jam, Wyoming to resume until the SODASH demand rebounds or there is a significant supply response to this depressed market. Moving to our corporate and financing results, net income for the second quarter of 2026 improved $2 million, while operating cash flow and free cash flow each improved $1 million as compared to the prior year period.
These improvements were due to having less debt outstanding resulted in lower interest costs and less cash paid for interest. regarding our quarterly distributions in may we paid the first quarter distribution of 75 cents per common unit and today we announced our second quarter distribution of 75 cents per common unit to be paid later this month Regarding our debt, I'm pleased and proud to report that we have now completely repaid our Opco credit facility and have one final $14 million scheduled payment due in December on our Opco Senior Notes. As a result, and as Craig mentioned earlier, we expect to be able to significantly increase NRP unit holder distributions for the next quarterly distribution to be paid in November. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Trevor, our operator for questions.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile a Q&A roster. There are no questions at this time.
I will now turn the call back to Craig Nunes for closing remarks.
Thank you, Trevor, and thank you everyone for joining our call today and thank you for being partners with us at NRP.
forward to talking to you next quarter. Have a good day. This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.
This live transcript is auto-generated without human intervention or review.
[Call has ended.]
Natural Resource Partners L.P. — Q1 2026 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to Natural Resource Partners First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call.[Operator Instructions] I will now hand the conference over to Tiffany Sammis, Investor Relations. Tiffany, please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to the Natural Resource Partners First Quarter 2026 Conference Call. Today's call is being webcast, and a replay will be available on our website. Joining me today are Craig Nunez, President and Chief Operating Officer; Chris Zolas, Chief Financial Officer; and Kevin Craig, Executive Vice President.
Some of our comments today may include forward-looking statements reflecting NRP's views about future events. These matters involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to materially differ from our forward-looking statements. These risks are discussed in NRP's Form 10-K and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason. Our comments today also include non-GAAP financial measures.
Additional details and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in our first intend to discuss the operations or outlook for any particular coal lessee or detailed market fundamentals. Now I would like to turn the call over to Craig Nunez, our President and Chief Operating Officer.
Thank you, Tiffany, and good morning, everyone. I would like to start off by apologizing in advance for my voice. I'm a little under the weather today, and I will do my best to speak clearly so you'll be able to understand me. NRP generated $34 million of free cash flow in the first quarter of 2026 and $167 million of free cash flow over the last 12 months before accounting for the $39 million capital investment we made into our soda ash business during the quarter.
Metallurgical and thermal coal producers continue to operate in challenging conditions, while soda ash producers are struggling amid what is arguably the most significant global supply glut in a generation. To date, we have not experienced any material impact on our Mineral Rights segment from the war in Iran.
However, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused some European countries to look at delaying coal plant phaseouts to ensure power security, similar to ongoing discussions in the United States.
U.S. metallurgical coal prices are realizing a modest benefit from increased demand for safe haven domestically produced steel. At the same time, sharply higher diesel and shipping costs are compressing producer margins and any slowdown in global industrial activity resulting from elevated energy prices could put downward pressure on steel demand and metallurgical coal pricing.
There is another second order effect worth noting. Higher oil prices may also lead to increased U.S. oil production and greater volumes of associated natural gas. Given the limits of LNG export capacity, a portion of this gas may become stranded domestically, placing downward pressure on North American natural gas prices and in turn, on thermal coal demand and pricing. Commodity markets have a way of solving one problem by creating another. In the soda ash market, higher energy and transportation costs, combined with war-related slowdowns in construction activity, particularly across Asia, have worsened condition for an industry already burdened by oversupply.
While lower-cost U.S. producers may ultimately gain market share as higher cost competitors struggle, we have not yet seen clear evidence of this shift.
In short, the war in Iran has taken an already difficult outlook for soda ash and made it worse. Despite these headwinds, NRP continues to generate substantial cash flow and remains on track with our deleveraging strategy.
Although outstanding debt increased to $73 million during the quarter as we funded the $39 million investment in Sisecam, Wyoming. we subsequently reduced debt to $60 million by quarter end and have paid it down to $45 million as of today. Our objective is straightforward: pay off debt so that more cash can ultimately flow to unitholders.
Before the conflict in Iran, both metallurgical and thermal coal markets were showing early signs of stabilization.
While we cannot say with confidence that coal prices have reached a cyclical bottom, there are indications that the worst may be behind us. Looking ahead, my primary concern remains our soda ash business. Despite being one of the lowest cost producers globally, Sisecam Wyoming is currently struggling to generate positive free cash flow. While we were early to call for a soda ash downturn, I underestimated both its severity and duration. Our prior stress testing did not envision a decline of this magnitude.
Had you asked me a year ago whether we would be making a capital infusion earlier this year, I would have said no. We are reevaluating our assumptions regarding global soda ash markets in general and Sisecam Wyoming in particular. Recent events have demonstrated that even low-cost producers like us are not immune to prolonged adverse conditions.
Since acquiring our interest in Sisecam Wyoming 13 years ago, NRP has received $0.5 billion in distributions so far. Annual distributions have ranged widely from a low of negative $39 million to a high of $81 million, averaging roughly $38 million per year. As of today, those distributions already received have already delivered to NRP an 11% compound annualized return and a 1.6:1 multiple on our investment. Those calculations assign 0 residual value for our interest in Sisecam, Wyoming. In reality, the reserve information filed with our Form 10-K indicates that at current production levels, Sisecam Wyoming has approximately 50 years of remaining reserves.
Simply extrapolating historical average distributions over the 50-year remaining reserve life would equate to roughly $1.9 billion of potential future distributions to NRP, an unusually long runway for a natural resource asset and an important component of NRP's intrinsic value.
While our internal evaluation of our interest in Sisecam Wyoming is more detailed than that, incorporating projected pricing, cost, capital expenditures and the time value of money through discounted cash flow and internal rate of return calculations, these high-level numbers give you an idea of our view of the economic characteristics of that investment.
Before turning it over to Chris to cover the financial results, I'd like to leave you with 3 key takeaways. Number one, NRP's financial health is not dependent on the success of Sisecam Wyoming. Our balance sheet is strong, liquidity is ample and free cash flow generation is exceptionally robust at this stage in the commodity price cycle. Preserving this hard-earned financial strength is our top priority. Number two, we remain on track to increase NRP unitholder distributions this year, but continue to caution that challenging environments for all 3 of our key commodities, particularly soda ash, increase the likelihood that some event or combination of events could push that timing back.
I expect we will increase distributions in November, but will not be surprised if something happens to cause that to be delayed.
We will continue to update you each quarter with our latest thinking. And number three, decisions to invest additional capital in Sisecam Wyoming will be evaluated through the same lens we would apply to all investments, maximizing NRP's intrinsic value per unit while maintaining a conservative bias and an appropriate margin of safety.
Put simply, every dollar invested is a dollar that cannot be distributed to NRP unitholders today, and that trade-off must be justified by compelling returns on capital and the expectation of higher unitholder distributions in the future. For those of you who are new to NRP, I refer you to the unitholder letters in our annual reports for more information on our investment philosophy and approach to capital allocation. With that, I'll turn it over to Chris now to cover the financials.
Thank you, Craig. For 2026, NRP generated $20 million of net income and $33 million of operating cash flow. NRP's free cash flow in the first quarter of 2026 was negative $5 million, which takes into account the $39 million capital investment into Sisecam Wyoming.
Of these consolidated amounts, our Mineral Rights segment generated $34 million of net income, $42 million of operating cash flow and $43 million of free cash flow in the first quarter. When compared to the prior year first quarter, Mineral Rights segment net income decreased $12 million and operating cash flow and free cash flow each decreased $1 million.
The decrease in net income was primarily due to lower metallurgical and thermal coal sales volumes as compared to the prior year period and increased depletion rates at certain thermal properties.
The declines in operating and free cash flow were also primarily due to lower metallurgical and thermal coal sales volumes, partially offset by higher recoupments of prior period minimum payments in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the first quarter of this year.
Regarding our met thermal coal royalty mix, metallurgical coal made up approximately 65% of our coal royalty revenues and 45% of coal royalty sales volumes in the first quarter of 2026. For our soda ash segment, net income for the first quarter decreased $12 million compared to the prior year quarter.
This decrease was driven by lower sales prices and volumes due to the oversupplied international soda ash market and weakened demand for flat glass. Operating cash flow decreased $3 million and free cash flow decreased $42 million when compared to the prior year period.
These decreases were due to not receiving a distribution in the first quarter of 2026 as compared to receiving $3 million of distributions in the first quarter of 2025.
In addition, free cash flow was further impacted by the $39 million capital investment made in Sisecam Wyoming in the first quarter of 2026. In March of this year, NRP and Sisecam Wyoming's managing partner made a capital investment into Sisecam Wyoming and NRP's pro-rata share was just $39 million.
NRP does not expect distributions from Sisecam Wyoming to resume until soda ash market demand rebounds or there is a significant supply response to this weakened market. Moving to our Corporate and Financing segment. Q1 2026 net income, operating cash flow and free cash flow each improved $3 million as compared to the prior year period.
These improvements to the Corporate and Financing segment were due to less debt outstanding, resulting in lower interest costs and less cash paid for interest. Regarding our quarterly distributions, in February this year, we paid the fourth quarter distribution of $0.75 per common unit. In March, we paid a special cash distribution of $0.12 per common unit to help cover unitholder tax liabilities associated with owning NRP's units in 2025.
And today, we announced our first quarter distribution of $0.75 per common unit to be paid later this month. And with that, I'll turn the call over to our operator for questions.
[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Stephen Bols with Yellowgate Investment Management.
2. Question Answer
Can you discuss the minus $7.8 million loss on the equity and earnings from the soda ash segment? Was that a cash loss? Or does it include interest? Maybe if you could just give a little bit more detail on that.
Sure. No, that was -- that was our proportionate share of their net income during the first quarter. So that was their operating results. That includes all cash and noncash amounts. That's the U.S. GAAP number.
Understood. So that means the total loss would have been double that. And I guess I'm trying to get a sense of whether that included any impairments or whether that was sort of represented by -- I guess, maybe if you have an idea, I know it comes in the financial statements, what the gross loss would have been like...
Yes. We have a footnote in our 10-Q that you'll see later here today that will disclose anything significant, but there was no significant onetime items that were in the net income amount.
Okay. I'll take a look for that. Also talked that coal sales volumes this quarter were down about 20%, 21% versus the prior year, also down versus fourth quarter. Just my quick look, it looks like Illinois Basin was down a lot, Northern Powder River and Gulf Coast. Was that anything there that you see going forward? Do you have a sense of -- obviously, you guys don't have the production forecast, but do you have a sense of -- was there anything in particular going on there or what you think what things should look like for the year ahead?
Well, as you know, we don't talk about any lessees particularly. And when we talk about Illinois Basin, we only have one lessee. But we didn't see -- there was not a systemic problem in Illinois Basin that resulted in lower production.
It was really an issue of mining on adjacent land that was not owned -- had minerals that were not owned by us during the period, and you'll see that happen sometimes. You'll see our production volumes drop and increase rather dramatically from period to period as the operator moves from adjacent property on to us and back off of us again.
Got it. So nothing systematic.
Correct.
Great. I just wanted to have another financial statement question, a quick one is in the cash flow statements for cash flow from financing, there was $8.6 million spent during the quarter just on other items net. Can you talk about what that was?
Sure. The biggest item there is taxes associated with equity awards. So when we settle equity awards, they get net settled and those taxes get paid by NRP.
That happens every first quarter.
Got it. Okay. And I guess that's also just the payables are probably also just catching up with the bonuses or other payments from the prior year. One last quick question is just noticed there's noncash, but there was a major increase in depreciation. I think you mentioned that there was increased depletion rates in certain thermal coal. Anything else, the number went from $4 million to $7.6 million this quarter.
Yes. You picked up on it. I mean that's exactly right. We continually do evaluations of our economic tons estimates that drive that depletion calculation. And as we get information from our operators and our lessees about their future mine plans, it can cause some adjustments to our -- those estimates of economic tons.
And that's what happened last year. There wasn't just want to add there. You noticed there wasn't any associated impairment that was recorded as a result of those adjustments. So...
Again, that's something that fluctuates from time to time. Your estimated reserve quantities will go up, they'll go down. And as they do, it affects your depletion rate each year on your financial statements and on your tax returns.
Our next question comes from the line of David Spier with Nitor Capital Management.
Regarding the soda ash JV following the contribution, how much debt now remains at the JV?
$60 million?
$60 million in total, not to NRP share.
Correct.
Got it. And then earlier, when you mentioned you're potentially reevaluating the soda ash business, is it possible to further elaborate on potential options?
Well, let me tell you what I mean by reevaluating. So those of you who follow us for a long time, you know that we are very focused on scenario testing, stress testing our business, trying to evaluate every possible thing or a combination of that could undermine our results.
We do the same thing on soda ash. And quite frankly, the environment that we find ourselves in now is one that is worse than we had envisioned in our stress testing.
So we have gone back to the drawing board and said, okay, let's start from scratch because since this scenario, this market situation has fallen outside of what we had envisioned was realistically possible, we need to correct our thinking.
And so we're just reevaluating everything along those lines. As far as what are the possible scenarios going forward with respect to Sisecam Wyoming, two reasons I don't have a lot of meat to give you on that. The first is that we don't yet know what the operator of the venture is going to do.
They are working, they're evaluating, they're making their decisions of what they would like to propose as a plan going forward. And the second thing is this is a very competitive market that we're in, in the global soda ash business right now, even more competitive now than during normal times.
So I don't want to elaborate too much on the possible avenues that the operator may be considering because it could give competitors information that would not be helpful for us for them to have.
And I'd still imagine even in the current depressed environment, it's the partnership's view that this, the JV is still a large component of the company's value right now.
It is our view that this is a world-class asset that has a very long life to it with very significant cash-generating potential in the future that's going through a very difficult time right now.
And so yes, I mean, look, the concern that we have that you should have, I think that everyone should have is, are there signals here that this asset has lost the the investment characteristics that attracted us to it in the first place as it is the future going to be materially worse than the past.
This asset has been operating for over 60 years. And is the next 50 going to be materially worse than the last 60? And are we unrealistically cleaning to bright memories of the past, allowing ourselves to be misleaded misled into making more investments into the future that shouldn't be made. And we're trying to be very careful that we don't fall into that trap.
We have reached the end of the Q&A session. I will now turn the call back to Craig Nunez for closing remarks.
Thank you very much, operator, and thank you, everyone, for your participation on the call and the questions. And I wish you a very good day and look forward to speaking to you on our next call.
This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.
Natural Resource Partners L.P. — Q4 2025 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Natural Resource Partners L.P. Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions]
I will now hand the call over to Tiffany Sammis, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to the Natural Resource Partners Fourth Quarter 2025 Conference Call. Today's call is being webcast, and a replay will be available on our website. Joining me today are Craig Nunez, President and Chief Operating Officer; Chris Zolas, Chief Financial Officer; and Kevin Craig, Executive Vice President.
Some of our comments today may include forward-looking statements reflecting NRP's views about future events. These matters involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to materially differ from our forward-looking statements. These risks are discussed in NRP's Form 10-K and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason. Our comments today also include non-GAAP financial measures. Additional details and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in our fourth quarter press release, which can be found on our website.
I would like to remind everyone that we do not intend to discuss the operations or outlook for any particular coal lessee or detailed market fundamentals.
Now I would like to turn the call over to Craig Nunez, our President and Chief Operating Officer.
Thank you, Tiffany, and good morning, everyone. NRP generated $46 million of free cash flow in the fourth quarter and $169 million of free cash flow in the full year 2025. All three of our key commodities, metallurgical coal, thermal coal and soda ash continued to struggle with sales prices that are near or below our estimates of operator's marginal cost of production. Metallurgical and thermal sales prices are at cyclically low levels and soda ash prices are at generational lows. We do not yet see any catalysts on the horizon that are likely to change this outlook in the foreseeable future.
In 2025, softening global economic activity and subdued demand for steel weighed on metallurgical coal pricing, while low natural gas prices and mild weather pressured thermal coal. While sentiment towards thermal coal is benefiting from the projected rise in electricity demand from data centers, we have yet to see any material market improvement.
Until we see clear evidence of a structural market shift, we remain disciplined in managing the partnership under the assumption that demand for North American thermal coal remains a long-term secular decline. As we said over the course of last year, 2025 was a very challenging time for the global soda ash industry. We believe 2026 will be worse. While we were early to warn about the potential for excess capacity hitting the market, the extent and potential duration of the downturn is exceeding even our expectations.
International prices are currently below the cost of production for most producers. We believe supply rationalization is not a question of if, but when. However, we also believe rebalancing global supply and demand will take time, and we expect it could be several years before a healthy bid returns to the market and prices return to historical levels.
We anticipate further pressure on Sisecam Wyoming's financial performance. We have not received distributions from the joint venture for the last two quarters, and we do not expect distributions to resume for the foreseeable future. Our managing partner is retaining cash to support investments in safety, operational integrity and to shore up the capital structure.
Additionally, earlier this month, we agreed with our partner to invest capital in the venture to reduce outstanding amounts under its bank credit facility and better position it to compete in the current environment. NRP share of this investment is $39 million, and we evaluated it as we would any other capital allocation decision with the goal of maximizing NRP's intrinsic value per unit. Regarding carbon-neutral initiatives, leasing interest for underground carbon sequestration remains lackluster. As political, regulatory and market uncertainties posed significant hurdles for developers contemplating large capital investments for these types of projects. We continue to work on multiple geothermal, solar and lithium opportunities and we are making small-scale progress on several initiatives, but have nothing material to report.
In conclusion, coal prices remain at cyclical lows and global soda ash prices are at generational lows. Our coal lessees are operating at or near their cost of production and our soda ash investment, one of the world's lowest cost producers is managing through what may be the worst bear market in its 60-plus-year history.
Despite this, NRP continues to generate robust free cash flow and make progress toward our goal of retiring all outstanding debt. We retired $109 million of debt in 2025 and finished the year with $33 million of debt and no other financial obligations outstanding. Our time line has been to retire all debt and significantly increase unitholder distributions in August of this year.
Although we've cautioned that extended bear markets for all three of our key commodities would increase the likelihood that some event would occur that could push that timing back. The $39 million investment in Sisecam Wyoming is one such event and will push the distribution increase we had expected to occur in August back to a subsequent quarter.
I'll turn it over now to Chris for more details.
Thank you, Craig. In the fourth quarter of 2025, NRP generated $31 million of net income, $45 million of operating cash flow and $46 million of free cash flow. For the full year 2025, NRP generated $136 million of net income, a $166 million of operating cash flow and $169 million of free cash flow.
Of these consolidated amounts, our Mineral Rights segment generated $40 million of net income, $49 million of operating cash flow and $50 million of free cash flow in the fourth quarter. And $166 million of net income, $182 million of operating cash flow and $185 million of free cash flow in the full year of 2025. When compared to the prior year fourth quarter, our Mineral Rights segment net income, operating cash flow and free cash flow each decreased $13 million.
When compared to the full year, our Mineral Rights segment net income declined $41 million, while operating and free cash flow each decreased $60 million. These decreases were primarily due to weaker metallurgical coal markets, resulting in lower sales prices and volumes. Regarding our net thermal coal royalty mix, metallurgical coal made up approximately 70% of our coal royalty revenues and 45% of coal royalty sales volumes for the fourth quarter and 65% of our coal royalty revenues and 45% of our core royalty sales volumes for the full year 2025.
For our soda ash segment, Net income for the fourth quarter and full year of 2025 decreased $3 million and $15 million, respectively, when compared to the prior year periods. Operating and free cash flow for the fourth quarter and full year of 2025, each decreased by $11 million and $31 million, respectively, as compared to the prior year periods. These decreases were primarily due to lower international sales prices, driven by new natural soda ash supply from China, as well as weak glass demand from the construction and automobile markets. We have not received a distribution from Sisecam Wyoming since the second quarter of 2025 and do not expect distributions from Sisecam Wyoming to resume until soda ash demand rebounds where there is a significant supply response to this weakened market, most likely from higher-cost synthetic production.
Moving to our Corporate and Financing segment. Q4 2025 net income, operating cash flow and free cash flow each improved $3 million as compared to the prior year period. Full year net income improved by $9 million, while operating and free cash flow each improved $8 million as compared to the prior year period. These improvements to the Corporate and Financing segment were due to significantly less debt outstanding, resulting in lower interest costs and less cash paid for interest.
We used the free cash flow generated from our business segments in 2025 to repay $109 million of debt. Even including the impact of our planned $39 million capital investment into Sisecam Wyoming, we remain on track to accomplish our deleveraging goal this year. Regarding our quarterly distributions, in November of 2025, we paid a third quarter distribution of $0.75 per common unit. In February of this year, we paid a distribution of $0.75 related to the fourth quarter of 2025.
In addition, today, we announced a special distribution of $0.12 per common unit to help cover unitholder tax liabilities associated with owning NRP's common units in 2025.
And with that, I'll turn the call over to our operator for questions.
[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from David Spier with Nitor Capital Management.
2. Question Answer
Just to better understand the capital contribution to the soda ash JV, is there any way to provide how much bank that was outstanding and whether the JV is now debt-free following the contribution?
The JV is not debt free. The JV has $50-plus million of debt remaining after the contribution.
So is there any plans or intention to continue making contributions to pay down the remaining debt? Is that on the table?
We do not have that. That's not our plan right now. What I will say is that this is a very difficult soda ash market. We were early and we were right on the downturn. But we've been wrong on the extent, the depth and the duration of the downturn now that we're in it. If things get worse, there could be situations where we would elect to put more capital into the soda ash venture. That's always a possibility, but that's not what we're planning at the moment.
And was this just lastly, was this a requirement? Or was it your election and option?
It was our election.
Our next question comes from [ Dan Adler ].
My question was related to the capital investment as well. I'd lowered my hand, but not in time.
Our next question comes from Phillip Cramer with BATS Wireless.
Yes. Congratulations on the foresight and great moves by significantly deleveraging the partnership over the last years. Do you anticipate that we'll be in a position to substantially increase distributions in the make orders?
No, not in May. If you do the math, you take our run rates that we're generating in free cash. You take into account the $39 million distribution or contribution we're making to the Sisecam Wyoming joint venture. The timing would say it's probably in November.
Thanks for the clarification.
You bet. I want to say what we've said before, though in prior calls, and that is that the longer the bear market continues for all three of our key commodities, the greater the likelihood something happens that pushes that timing back. But right now, that's what the timing looks like.
[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Alberto Vadia with Fruit Tree Capital.
So I attended the Federal Land Management's sale of auction of Mineral Rights for two of Warriors mines. And I was just curious why you guys weren't -- didn't bid.
Good question. Let me just tell you that the opportunities to acquire passive interest in Natural Resource assets at attractive prices, which are what we try to do does not come along often. Auctions are typically not places where you come away with attractive opportunities and for mineral type assets. So you're not likely to see us participate in auctions.
Furthermore, I'll tell you, we are still on our path to delever and our goal is to essentially pay off all of our debt and then focus primarily on returning capital to unitholders in form of distributions. So those are the reasons we weren't there.
There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Craig Nunez for closing remarks.
Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for participating in this call, and thank you all of you for your support of NRP and have a good day.
This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.
Natural Resource Partners L.P. — Q3 2025 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Thank you for standing by. My name is Tina, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Natural Resource Partners L.P. Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Tiffany Sammis, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to the Natural Resource Partners Third Quarter 2025 Conference Call. Today's call is being webcast, and a replay will be available on our website. Joining me today are Craig Nunez, President and Chief Operating Officer; Chris Zolas, Chief Financial Officer; and Kevin Craig, Executive Vice President.
Some of our comments today may include forward-looking statements reflecting NRP's views about future events. These matters involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to materially differ from our forward-looking statements. These risks are discussed in NRP's Form 10-K and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.
Our comments today also include non-GAAP financial measures. Additional details and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in our third quarter press release, which can be found on our website. I would like to remind everyone that we do not intend to discuss the operations or outlook for any particular coal lessee or detailed market fundamentals.
Now I would like to turn the call over to Craig Nunez, our President and Chief Operating Officer.
Thanks, Tiffany, and good morning, everyone. NRP generated $42 million of free cash flow in the third quarter of 2025 and $190 million of free cash flow over the last 12 months. We continue to generate substantial free cash flow despite significant headwinds for all 3 of our key commodities: metallurgical coal, thermal coal and soda ash.
Metallurgical coal markets are challenged by slowing global growth and soft steel demand. Thermal coal markets are struggling with muted demand caused by mild weather, cheap natural gas, slowing global growth and renewable energy adoption. While the prospects for a more accommodating regulatory environment and increased electricity demand from data centers have increased market optimism for thermal coal, we have not yet seen any material support for prices or demand. While we acknowledge that these factors offer the potential for a more bullish long-term outlook, we will continue to manage the partnership in accordance with the thesis that North American thermal coal remains in long-term secular decline until we see evidence to the contrary.
As we've seen previously, we believe -- as we've said previously, we believe most coal operators are struggling to make money with most producing at razor thin margins and a growing number operating at a loss. We are seeing this play out in the announced results of publicly traded companies and recent bankruptcies of several smaller producers. While we have not identified a catalyst to turn the market around, we continue to believe that the vast majority of our lessees are in better financial shape than in previous downturns. We believe these factors, combined with our relatively robust free cash flow generating capability, solid and improving capital structure and conservative management philosophy, position us well for navigating a very difficult coal market.
The soda ash market remains oversupplied due to capacity additions and slowing global growth. International prices are below cash production costs for most producers. While we were early to share publicly our concerns regarding the potential for the supply-demand imbalances now plaguing the market, the depth and potential duration of the current downturn is more significant than we initially expected. We are in a generational bear market for soda ash, and there will be more pain to bear before the situation improves.
If there is a silver lining to the cloud hanging over the soda ash market, it is that this dynamic is unsustainable in the long term. We expect producers will rationalize supply at some point, but we don't know when or how that will occur. Rebalancing supply and demand will likely take several years before prices return to levels enjoyed historically.
As one of the world's lowest cost producers, Sisecam Wyoming continues to navigate this downturn well. In addition to aggressively managing costs and inventories, Sisecam is maintaining its focus on safety and system integrity, 2 areas that are sometimes overlooked during periods of challenging financial results. Our soda ash investment is a long-term asset with durable competitive advantages that will produce an essential global commodity for many years in the future. We are quite pleased that our managing partner is committed to maintaining the long-term integrity of our shared asset even when near-term financial performance is down.
We did not receive a distribution from Sisecam this quarter after receiving $8 million in distributions during the first half of the year. While we expect Sisecam Wyoming to remain profitable through the downturn, we do not expect it to resume distributions for the foreseeable future with cash retained used for investments in safety and system integrity.
The carbon-neutral industry continues to struggle. Oxy notified us during the quarter that it was dropping its subsurface CO2 sequestration lease on 65,000 acres of floor space we own in Polk County, Texas. You'll recall that Exxon dropped its CO2 sequestration lease on 75,000 acres we own in Baldwin County, Alabama last year. As of now, none of our 3.5 million acres of CO2 sequestration pore space is under lease. You've heard me describe these sequestration rights as out-of-the-money call options on greatness. They cost us nothing to hold, they never expire, and we benefit if the market for CO2 sequestration goes up. I do not believe our leases were dropped due to any problems associated with our specific acreage.
On the contrary, I think the locations leased to Oxy and Exxon are some of the highest quality CO2 pore space in the Gulf Coast. The entire CO2 sequestration industry remains burdened by high capital and operating costs, insufficient and inadequate revenue streams and the lack of a consistent regulatory framework. These factors have created formidable economic barriers that operators are either unable or unwilling to overcome. Our call options on sequestration pore space will remain out of the money until and unless these industry challenges are resolved.
In conclusion, coal and soda ash prices are down, and we do not see near-term catalysts for market improvement. Our coal lessees are operating at or near their cost of production, and our soda ash investment is experiencing the lowest international sales prices in decades. Despite this, NRP continues to generate robust free cash flow and make progress toward our goal of retiring all outstanding debt. Over the past 12 months, we have retired nearly $130 million of debt with only $70 million of debt remaining as of the end of the quarter.
We continue to believe that we will be in a position to increase unitholder distributions in August. However, I caution that the longer we slog through the depths of bear markets for all 3 of our key commodities, the greater the likelihood that some event occurs that pushes that timing back. Rest assured, however, that we will continue to manage the partnership with a conservative mindset in order to protect your investment and be best prepared for negative events that may arise. And with that, I'll turn it over to Chris to cover the financials.
Thank you, Craig. In the third quarter of 2025, NRP generated $31 million of net income, $41 million of operating cash flow and $42 million of free cash flow. Of these consolidated amounts, our Mineral Rights segment generated $41 million of net income, $44 million of operating cash flow and $45 million of free cash flow. When compared to the prior year third quarter, our Mineral Rights segment net income remained flat, while operating and free cash flow each decreased $9 million. Decreases were primarily due to weaker metallurgical coal markets resulting in lower sales prices.
Regarding our third quarter 2025 met thermal coal royalty mix, metallurgical coal made up approximately 70% of our coal royalty revenues and 50% of our coal royalty sales volumes.
For our soda ash segment, net income decreased by $11 million compared to the prior year third quarter, while operating and free cash flow each decreased by $6 million. These decreases were primarily due to lower international sales prices driven by weakened glass demand from the construction and automobile markets, combined with new natural soda ash supply from China. We did not receive a distribution from Sisecam Wyoming in the third quarter of 2025 and do not expect distributions from Sisecam Wyoming to resume until soda ash demand rebounds or there is a more significant supply response to this weakened market, most likely from higher cost synthetic production.
Moving to our Corporate and Financing segment. Q3 2025 net income improved $3 million and operating cash flow and free cash flow each improved $2 million as compared to the prior year period due to significantly less debt outstanding, resulting in lower interest cost and less cash paid for interest. We used the free cash flow generated from our business segments to repay $32 million of debt during the third quarter, over $70 million through the first 9 months of 2025, and we remain on track to accomplish our deleveraging goals next year.
Regarding our quarterly distributions, in August of 2025, we paid the second quarter distribution of $0.75 per common unit. And today, we announced the third quarter 2025 distribution of $0.75 per common unit that will be paid later this month.
And with that, I'll turn the call back over to our operator for questions.
[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of [ Dan Adler ].
2. Question Answer
This is Dan Adler. Thank you for all you're doing for shareholders. My question revolves around leasing for lithium mining in the Smackover region. And if you could provide any information on acreage that has been leased or potential for revenue from that leasing.
Thank you for your call, Dan, for your question. Yes, we are active in leasing acreage in the Smackover formation for lithium production to multiple lessees. We don't comment on terms of leases and that type of thing. I will say that the activity in the area has been -- has varied from robust to lukewarm at various periods over the last several years. But yes, we're active in the Smackover in Southern Arkansas and in Northeast Texas.
Our next question comes from the line of David Spier with Nitor Capital.
Just first, a bit of a housekeeping question. Just given the passive nature of the partnership, just the operating and maintenance expense, what goes into those expenses? And is there any ability given the environment to reduce that expense line?
Sure. Salaries and compensation is a big part of that. We also have a variety of other general corporate costs, insurance, legal, accounting. So there's a variety of general corporate type of costs that flow in there.
We have -- those aren't in general and administrative expenses. I'm talking about the operating and maintenance expense line.
Sure. We also have those same type of expenses in the operating expense for the Mineral Rights segment. But there's also things such as property taxes, which is a big one and royalty expenses as well. We have some royalty costs as well that go in there.
We have a zero-based budgeting approach so that every year, we -- the goal is to make the total cost as low as possible rather than simply look at increases of costs from year-to-year. So I won't say that we don't sharpen our pencil whenever times are lean because we do. But the reality is we sharpen our pencil all the time. And we have long-term cost management goals that we follow.
Got it. And then just a general question regarding the company's mineral rights. Are the majority of the company's mineral rights specific to certain minerals? Or are they general subsurface rights where royalty opportunities exist on anything that comes out of the ground? Just some better insight there would be helpful.
It is generally for specific minerals.
Understood. And then so with that, are there any opportunities given the growing demand or interest in nat gas? Are there any additional production opportunities that might be arising that didn't previously when the company -- the partnership didn't previously thought existed over the past year?
I'm not sure I understand your question. You referred.
Maybe some higher cost -- there were some higher cost natural gas plays that the company has mineral rights on that in the past few years didn't seem like a possibility for production where now these plays are now in the money and there's increased interest of producers.
In other words, call options moving in the money is what you're describing. Yes. The vast majority of our oil and gas mineral rights are in the Haynesville, in North, Central and West -- North Central and Northwest Louisiana. And that's a pretty active basin right now. And so I would say drilling has picked up a bit in the Haynesville. And to the extent that it does, we benefit from that. I will say that while -- I will say that those numbers are -- those production amounts and those revenues that we can receive from oil and gas minerals, they're not as that material to the partnership.
Got it. And then just regarding capital allocation, looking at the cash on hand and the debt outstanding, it seems like 1, maybe 2 quarters away from being in a net cash position. Is that the right way to look at it?
You're looking at it correctly. As we've said, we believe that we will be in a position where we will have the majority -- the vast majority of our remaining debt paid down and be able to increase distributions in the third quarter next year. That's the plan, and that's the forecast. The issue comes in with -- as we continue in this difficult market, are there going to be things that will happen that will change that. We don't know that there will be, but we're just warning everybody that there could be.
Our next question comes from the line of [ Ken Ack ].
[ Kenny Ackerman ]. A question, again, regarding capital allocation. I mean, you guys retired the warrants, have retired substantial amounts of debt, almost all of it, as was just discussed. What kind of would be the criteria to start unit repurchases? Or I mean, what are the thoughts surrounding that? I know this isn't the first time this has been asked, but just considering you're getting closer and closer to a net cash position. I mean, is there anything that would inspire you guys to repurchase your units? Or is there anything prohibiting? I know there's one large owner of the partnership. Just didn't know if unit repurchases were even possible.
So let's think of it instead of thinking about being in a net cash position, let's think about how we, at the company, think about our balance sheet and what the signals we look forward to being able to do -- to deploy cash in some way other than just paying down debt. We're looking to establish what we define as an NRP fortress balance sheet. And to us, that means 2 things. It means, number one, no permanent debt in the capital structure. And permanent debt, we define as debt that we do not have the ability or intent to repay prior to maturity with internally generated cash.
And then in addition to no permanent debt, we want to have $30 million of cash on the balance sheet. And that also means at the same time that we'll have our revolving credit facility in place. Once we're in that position, we feel that we have what we believe is a fortress balance sheet. And then we can feel free to allocate capital as we see best. And what are our priorities for allocating capital?
Number one, unitholder distributions. Number two, unit repurchases at material discounts to our estimates of intrinsic value. And number three, if they come along, opportunistic acquisitions where we can acquire assets that are within our circle of confidence at what we consider to be bargain prices. And there are no impediments to us being able to buy back units other than can we acquire them for a price that we think is a sufficient enough discount to our estimates of intrinsic value to want to do it.
Got it. No, makes total sense. And just one follow-up. I mean, can you give any color around what you consider intrinsic value? I mean just what -- I mean, broad question, but just what would the company consider intrinsic value just to get a decent sense of what would kind of qualify for unit repurchases and what wouldn't?
No, we're not going to guide on that. Sorry about that. I would encourage you to go back and read our unitholder letters that are published each spring with the annual report with the 10-K, especially this most recent one. But each one of them talks about how we think in terms of intrinsic value and the process we use to value the company because intrinsic value per unit is a very important component of all of our management decisions that we make. And so we've explained in writing how we go about doing that. We just don't tell you exactly what our assumptions are and what the numbers are that we think are in place.
Our next question comes from the line of Neil Patel with Sawgrass Beach.
Congrats on the progress, especially with the debt paydown to $70 million. It's been quite the journey over the last 10 years. Thanks for the comments on thermal coal. I had a question on that. It seems that every day we're hearing more about data center CapEx being at just very extreme levels. I understand you're not seeing that demand come through to your thermal coal assets yet. But if that does next year, is there infrastructure and capacity in place for the producers on your thermal coal properties to scale up? Or would that require a lot of additional CapEx on their side?
Good question. And I don't know that we completely know the answer to your question because, as you know, our operators are our operators. We don't operate and they don't necessarily share everything with us. But I can give you my educated guess on it, my best judgment. I do believe that if the increased power demand from data centers that is forecasted to result from all of the CapEx that's now planned over the next 5, 10 years, I do believe there will have to be material amounts of capital invested in the thermal coal infrastructure, both to bring new production online and to process it and transport it.
I don't know what those dollars are, and I don't know to the extent that, that capital would involve mines that are on NRP or on other acreage elsewhere in North America.
And with no further questions in queue, I will turn the call back over to Craig Nunez for closing remarks.
Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining our call today. Thank you for your questions. And as I look over the list of participants here, the vast majority of you have been with us for quite a while. So thank you for your support over the years, and we look forward to talking to you next quarter. Take care.
Thank you again for joining us today. This does conclude today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
Financial data from Natural Resource Partners L.P.
Revenue
Revenue is the sum of all sales generated by a company, e.g. for its products or services.
Revenue (TTM) metric explainedDirect Costs
Direct costs are the costs incurred directly in connection with the manufacture of the product or service.
Gross Profit
Gross Profit indicates how much of the revenue remains in the company after deducting direct production costs. If the percentage share of sales is calculated, this is referred to as the gross margin.
Gross Profit metric explainedSelling and Administrative Expenses
Selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A) include all expenses for marketing and sales as well as the general administration of the company.
Research and Development Expense
Research and development costs (R&D) provide information on how much the company invests in the research and development of its products. The costs are particularly interesting as a percentage of revenue and in comparison to direct competitors.
EBITDA
EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) is the company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The EBITDA margin is calculated as a percentage of sales.
Depreciation and Amortization
Depreciation represents reductions in the value of the company's assets (e.g. due to wear and tear on machinery).
EBIT (Operating Income)
EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Taxes) is the company's profit before interest and taxes, also known as the operating income. The EBIT Margin is calculated as a percentage of sales at
.
Net Profit
Net Profit represents the profit or loss after deduction of all costs.
Net Profit metric explainedStocksGuide Premium
| Sep '26 |
+/-
%
|
||
| Revenue | 179 179 |
20%
20%
100%
|
|
| - Direct Costs | - - |
-
-
|
|
| Gross Profit | - - |
-
-
|
|
| - Selling and Administrative Expenses | 44 44 |
17%
17%
25%
|
|
| - Research and Development Expense | - - |
-
-
|
|
| EBITDA | 135 135 |
21%
21%
75%
|
|
| - Depreciation and Amortization | 29 29 |
98%
98%
16%
|
|
| EBIT (Operating Income) EBIT | 106 106 |
32%
32%
59%
|
|
| Net Profit | 100 100 |
31%
31%
56%
|
|
In millions USD.
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Natural Resource Partners L.P. Stock News
Company Profile
Natural Resource Partners LP engages in the business of owning, managing, and leasing a diversified portfolio of mineral properties. It operates through the Coal Royalty and Other, and Soda Ash segments. The Coal Royalty and Other segment comprises of coal royalty properties and coal-related transportation and processing assets. The Soda Ash segment consists of non-controlling equity interest in a trona ore mining operation and soda ash refinery in the Green River Basin, Wyoming. The company was founded in April 2002 and is headquartered in Houston, TX.
StocksGuide Premium
| Head office | United States |
| CEO | Corby Robertson |
| Employees | 67,634 |
| Founded | 2002 |
| Website | nrplp.com |
