Kirby Corporation (KEX)
Industrials · NYQ · US
Fundamentals
Valuation and ratings
Kirby Corporation trades at USD141.89, which is 26% below the USD178.67 our discounted cash flow model puts on the business. On that measure alone it screens as undervalued, though a DCF is an argument rather than a measurement, and the market is frequently right about why something is cheap.
Our moat model scores it 48 out of 100, which is a moat, but not a deep one. A moat is a structural reason competitors cannot take the profits away, and it matters more to a long holding period than any single quarter's numbers do.
It changes hands at 22.1 times earnings. Be careful reading that in isolation: for a cyclical business a low P/E arrives at the top of the cycle, when profits are peaking and about to fall, which is exactly when the shares look cheapest and are not.
About Kirby Corporation
Kirby Corporation operates domestic tank barges in the United States. Its Marine Transportation segment provides marine transportation service and towing vessels transporting bulk liquid product, as well as operates tank barges throughout the Mississippi River System, on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, and coastwise along three United States coasts, Alaska, and Hawaii. It transports petrochemicals, black oils, refined petroleum products, and agricultural chemicals by tank barges; and operates offshore dry-bulk barges and tugboat units that are involved in the offshore transportation of dry-bulk cargos in the United States coastal trade. It owns and operates 1,105 inland tank barges, approximately 266 inland towboats, 28 coastal tank barges, 24 coastal tugboats, 2 offshore dry-bulk cargo barges, 3 offshore tugboats, and a docking tugboat. Its Distribution and Services segment sells after-market service and genuine replacement parts for engines, transmissions, reduction gears, electric motors, drives, and controls, electrical distribution and control systems, energy storage battery systems, and related oilfield service equipment; rebuilds component parts or diesel engines, transmissions and reduction gears, and related equipment for use in oilfield services, marine, power generation, on-highway, and other industrial applications; rents generators, industrial compressors, high capacity lift trucks, and refrigeration trailers; and manufactures and remanufactures oilfield service equipment, including pressure pumping units, as well as manufacturers electric power generation equipment, specialized electrical distribution and control equipment, and high capacity energy storage/battery systems. It serves various companies in the United States government, and pleasure crafts. The company was formerly known as Kirby Exploration Company, Inc. and changed its name to Kirby Corporation in 1990. Kirby Corporation was founded in 1921 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
KEX passes 3 of our 30 screens today
Each screen prints the exact criteria it used, and the circumstances in which it is wrong.
Smart money ownership
12 of the funds we track reported a position in their latest SEC 13F filing. Largest first:
- Ken Griffin, CITADEL ADVISORS LLC$83.13M · 0.0% of book
- Cliff Asness, AQR CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LLC$70.98M · 0.0% of book
- Select Equity Group, Select Equity Group, L.P.$49.95M · 0.3% of book
- Israel Englander, MILLENNIUM MANAGEMENT LLC$42.30M · 0.0% of book
- Arrowstreet Capital, ARROWSTREET CAPITAL, LIMITED PARTNERSHIP$41.79M · 0.0% of book
A word of warning on reading these figures: a 13F reports the market value of a holding, so a fund that traded nothing at all still appears to have sold when the price fell. We found 102 companies where the standard reading gives the opposite answer. Only the share count is honest.
Common questions
Is Kirby Corporation (KEX) undervalued?
Against our discounted cash flow estimate of USD178.67, KEX at USD141.89 is 26% below fair value. That is one model's answer, not a recommendation, and most of a DCF's output sits in a terminal value nobody can forecast.
Which funds own KEX?
12 of the institutions we track reported a position in KEX in their most recent SEC 13F filing. A 13F is filed up to 45 days after quarter end, so it tells you what a fund held then, not what it holds now.
What is KEX's P/E ratio?
KEX trades at 22.1 times earnings. A low P/E is not automatically cheap: on a cyclical company it is usually a warning that earnings are at a peak.
The full research page for KEX, with financial statements, ownership detail, peer comparison and alerts, is free inside the app.
Data from company filings, exchange quotes and SEC EDGAR 13F disclosures. Quotes are delayed. Metrics we do not have are left out rather than estimated. Educational information, not financial advice.