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The Moat Index

Kodiak Gas Services, Inc.

KGS · Utilities · $5.6B mkt cap · FY2025 filings · No moat ·

Doesn't clear the bar

31/ 100
No moat

The four filters

Pricing power65

Median gross margin 37.6% over 3y, very stable.

Returns on capital10

Median ROIC 5.8%, above the 9% hurdle in 20% of years.

Balance-sheet safety40

Net debt/EBITDA 4.1x, no material interest expense disclosed.

Capital discipline0

Owner earnings -18.3%/yr, share count growing (dilution).

Margin of safety

Above valueOn sale
525% above value
Owner earnings (normalized)
$80.5M
Est. intrinsic value / share
$10.43
Recent price
$65.19
Discount to value
525% above value

Conservative model: 9% discount rate, 0% assumed growth (capped at 4%), maintenance capex ≈ min(capex, D&A).

6 years of fundamentals

The business, in plain English

It earned 6.5% on invested capital in FY2025, with a median of 5.8% across 5 filed years. The Returns on Capital filter above scores it 10/100.

The balance sheet carried $2.6B of total debt in FY2025 against $80.5M of owner earnings — roughly 31.7 years of owner earnings to retire it all. Balance-Sheet Safety scores it 40/100.

Put together: Pricing Power is the strongest of the four filters (65/100) and Capital Discipline the weakest (0/100), which is how KGS lands at 31/100 — a None moat.

This breakdown is generated from the filed numbers and sub-scores above — no outside narrative, no estimates. Where a filing doesn’t disclose an input, the sentence that would need it is omitted instead of guessed.

FY2020–FY2025 · 6 fiscal years, normalized from KGS’s SEC filings

RevenueSales, as filed$1.3B FY2025
$0$500M$1B2020202220242025
Gross marginRevenue kept after cost of goods37.2% FY2023
0%20%40%2020202220242025
Return on invested capitalOperating profit on the capital employed6.5% FY2025
0%10%20%2020202220242025
Owner earningsCash an owner could take out$80.5M FY2025
$0$100M2020202220242025

Gaps in a line mean that item isn’t in KGS’s filings for that year — the series is never interpolated or estimated. The Table view lists every filed value, including operating and net margins, total debt, and share count.

Moat Score history

1 logged reading since Jul 18, 2026 · append-only, never rewritten

Moat Score over timeLast scored reading of each day, on the 0–100 scale30.7 / 100
0406080100WideNarrowShallowNo moatJul 18, 2026

Score history begins Jul 18, 2026 — the record builds from here and can’t be backfilled.

Tier changesSame-methodology crossings of the Wide / Narrow / Shallow bars

None yet — KGS has read No moat for every logged capture since Jul 18, 2026.

Scores are logged append-only and never overwritten — this record can’t be backfilled, which is exactly why it’s worth keeping.

Track record

How Kodiak Gas Services, Inc.’s moat rated in each of the years we can reconstruct from its filings — scored only on what was knowable at the time — and what its price and returns did afterward. The score never saw a price; the two are joined only in hindsight, for education, not as a signal.

As-of scores 2023–2025, one methodology version · reconstructed from filings on file each Dec 31 — never with hindsight

As-of Moat Score (dot colored by tier)Indexed price (total-return (dividends reinvested))Rated Wide-moat that year

How to read this: each dot is what the engine would have scored KGS on that December 31; the line below is its total-return price path (dividends reinvested) in the years since.

0406080100WideNarrowShallowNo moatAs-of Moat Score100200Indexed price · log scale (2024 = 100)2023202420252026

Two tracks, one timeline: the score has its own 0–100 scale (top), the price its own 100-based scale (bottom) — never a shared axis. The price path is a total-return (dividends reinvested) index built from the same data the forward returns use; gaps in the score line are years with no reconstructed rating (see the table for why). The Table view carries every value.

What followed, in the years it rated Wide

In the reconstructed history shown, KGS did not rate Wide-moat in any year, so there is no wide-moat track record to report. That absence is itself the honest answer — we don’t manufacture a comparison where the rating never earned one.

Utilities context

#34 of 52 scored Utilities companies, ranked by Moat Score.

Nearest peers by Moat Score

  1. #32CETY CLEAN ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES, INC.31.5No moat
  2. #33BESS BIMERGEN ENERGY CORPORATION31.3No moat
  3. #35ET Energy Transfer LP30.2No moat
  4. #36CLNE CLEAN ENERGY FUELS CORP.28.2No moat

Compare KGS with its nearest peers →All Utilities companies on the Index →

Common questions about KGS

Does Kodiak Gas Services, Inc. have an economic moat?
Based on its FY2025 SEC filings, the Moat Index scores Kodiak Gas Services, Inc. (KGS) 30.7 out of 100 — below the Shallow-moat bar, so no moat. The four filters behind that score (each 0–100): pricing power 65, returns on capital 10, balance-sheet safety 40, capital discipline 0.
Is KGS stock trading below its intrinsic value?
Against a deliberately conservative owner-earnings model (9% discount rate, 0% assumed growth, capped at 4%), estimated intrinsic value is $10.43 per share versus a recent price of $65.19 — 525% above value. This is an educational estimate computed from primary SEC filings, not investment advice.
How has KGS's Moat Score changed over time?
The record logs 1 reading since Jul 18, 2026; the latest reads 30.7 out of 100 (no moat). No tier changes on record yet. The history is append-only — readings are only ever added, never rewritten.
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Scored from primary SEC filings via the public methodology. Educational only — not a recommendation to buy or sell KGS. See the disclaimer.

Kodiak Gas Services, Inc. (KGS) Moat Score — The Moat Index · Buy Like Buffett