Forensic Analysis · Midstream Pipelines · as of Nov 8, 2026
Chesapeake Utilities Corp (CPK)
A forensic read on Chesapeake Utilities Corp built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
9.4%
ROE
18.1%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Chesapeake Utilities Corp earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.2, placing it in the Grey zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
5.5%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 5.5% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2023–FY2025 from 3.9%. After-tax operating profit was $114M in FY2023 and $186M in FY2025, with operating income at 22.5% of revenue in FY2023, 29.0% in FY2024 and 27.5% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +16% across FY2023–FY2025, from $2.9B to $3.4B, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the 3.9% the older base was already earning.
+12.9%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +27% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+12.9%/yr). The count is growing — 18.4M shares in FY2023, 23.5M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~12.9% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2023 has been diluted ~22%.
FCF ($237M)
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $61M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025, but free cash flow was ($237M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $234M — 26% of that. Capex and the payout together ran $297M past operating cash flow — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of. The balance sheet covered it: cash fell $6M and total debt rose $174M over FY2025 — $181M of the $297M. The FY2025 cash-flow statement filed $199M of debt issued against $26M repaid; $123M from shares issued; $13M from sales of property and equipment; net cash used in investing activities of $436M; net cash provided by financing activities of $196M.
+13.6%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +13.6% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The build is led by receivables up +32% against revenue +18% and PP&E up +14% against revenue +18%. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran in line with operating cash by 3% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 13.6%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average. Read them as two results, not one.Accruals ratio: the year-over-year change in net operating assets, relative to their own average.NOA (net operating assets): the money tied up in running the business, operating assets minus operating liabilities.
0.9% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 0.9% of revenue in FY2025 — about $0.36 per diluted share. No cash left the business to pay it, which is why operating cash flow adds it back. Net of repurchases the diluted count still rose about 12.9% a year across FY2023–FY2025, and the rate is falling. Stock compensation is one source of that issuance; acquisition consideration, equity raises, convertibles and other employee plans also net into the count, and these figures do not separate them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$930.0M
Revenue Growth YoY+18.1%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+17.8%
Net Margin15.1%
Free Cash Flow-$236.7M
Return on Equity9.4%
Debt / Equity0.91x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Chesapeake Utilities Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?