Black Stone Minerals, L.P. (BSM) is a publicly traded master limited partnership focused on the ownership and management of oil and natural gas mineral interests. Founded in 1876 as W.T. Carter & Bro., a lumber company, it transitioned into oil and gas drilling in the late 1980s and later restructured ...Black Stone Minerals, L.P. (BSM) is a publicly traded master limited partnership focused on the ownership and management of oil and natural gas mineral interests. Founded in 1876 as W.T. Carter & Bro., a lumber company, it transitioned into oil and gas drilling in the late 1980s and later restructured to become Black Stone Minerals. The company went public in 2015 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. Its portfolio includes approximately 16.8 million gross acres of mineral interests, 1.8 million gross acres of nonparticipating royalty interests, and 1.7 million gross acres of overriding royalty interests, spanning 41 states and 60 productive basins. This extensive footprint covers both established and emerging plays, providing diversification and stability.
Black Stone's business model involves leasing its mineral rights to exploration and production companies, generating royalty income and lease bonuses. The company also actively acquires additional mineral and royalty interests to grow its asset base. As of the latest data, it reported estimated proved reserves of 59,824 barrels of oil equivalent (as of December 31, 2021), though this likely includes natural gas and other hydrocarbons. The company's financial performance is robust, with a market cap of approximately $3 billion, a strong profit margin of over 50%, and low debt. It generates significant cash flows, enabling it to pay a substantial dividend yield of about 8.7%.
Key people include CEO H. Taylor DeWalch and Executive Chairman Thomas L. Carter Jr., who has been with the company for decades. The company employs around 122 full-time staff, indicating a lean operation given its large asset base. Black Stone's strategy focuses on maximizing the value of its mineral interests through active management, strategic acquisitions, and efficient operations. It aims to provide consistent returns to unitholders through distributions, while preserving long-term growth. With a history spanning 150 years, Black Stone Minerals remains a leading player in the mineral and royalty space, benefiting from its diversified acreage and strong industry relationships.
YoYYoY means Year-over-Year. It compares the latest annual value with the previous annual value to show long-term trend strength.
QoQQoQ means Quarter-over-Quarter. It compares the latest quarter with the immediately previous quarter to show short-term momentum changes.
RevenueThe total money that came through the front door from selling things, before paying a single bill. Think of it as the grand total of every credit card swipe from customers. (YoY compares this year to last year's performance, while QoQ compares the current three months to the previous three).
$422.3M
-3.9%
-35.2%
Net IncomeThe absolute bottom line. If the company paid every single supplier, employee, banker, and tax collector, this is the actual money left in their pocket at the end of the day.
$299.9M
+10.5%
+701.4%
Gross MarginThe basic markup. If they sell a $100 pair of sneakers, this percentage tells you how much of that price tag is profit right after paying for the rubber and shoelaces, but before paying for things like store rent or TV commercials.
+74.9%
-1.8%
-5.7%
Operating MarginThe 'day job' efficiency score. Out of every dollar a customer spends, this shows how many cents the company keeps after making the product AND paying for all the everyday corporate overhead (like salaries, marketing, and keeping the lights on).
+61.8%
-0.6%
-11.9%
Net MarginThe final take-home percentage. When you strip away every conceivable cost, tax, and interest payment, this is the exact number of cents the company truly gets to keep from every dollar in sales.
+71.0%
+15.0%
+1136.7%
Free Cash FlowThe holy grail of corporate cash. It's the spendable, physical money left over after the business pays for its daily operations AND buys the big, expensive upgrades (like new factories or servers) it needs to survive. This is the 'free' money they can use to pay dividends or buy back stock.
$298.4M
-22.5%
+38.0%
FCF MarginThe ultimate cash conversion rate. It shows how good the company is at turning regular sales directly into cold, hard, spendable cash. A high percentage means the business is an absolute cash-printing machine.
+70.7%
-19.3%
+113.0%
Debt / EquityThe financial risk gauge. It compares how much of the company's empire was built using borrowed money (loans) versus the owners' own money (shareholders). A high number means they are heavily leveraged and playing a riskier game; a low number means they are playing it safe.
13.7%
+518.3%
+1.1%
Current RatioThe 12-month survival check. It simply compares the cash they have right now (plus things they can quickly turn into cash) against the immediate bills they absolutely must pay this year. A score above 1 means they have enough in the wallet to cover the upcoming bills without panicking.
3.88x
+50.4%
+60.9%
Total AssetsThe absolute size of the company's empire. It bundles together absolutely everything of value they own—from the cash in the register and the inventory in the warehouse, to the software patents in the vault and the factories on the ground.
Operator: Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Black Stone Minerals Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand the conference over to Natalie Liddell, Vice President, Corporate Planning. Natalie, please go ahead.
Natalie Gentry Liddell: Good morning. Thank you for joining us either by phone or online for Black Stone Minerals Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded and will be available on our website along with the earnings release, which was issued last night. Before we start, I'd like to advise you that we will be making forward-looking statements during this call about our plans, expectations and assumptions regarding our future performance. These statements involve risks that may cause our actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements. For a discussion of these risks, you should refer to the cautionary information about forward-looking statements in our press release from yesterday and the Risk Factors section of our 2025 10-K. We may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures that we believe are useful in evaluating our performance. Reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure and other information about these non-GAAP metrics are described in our earnings press release from yesterday, which can be found on our website at www.blackstoneminerals.com. Joining me on the call from the company are Taylor DeWalch, Co-CEO and President; Fowler Carter, Co-CEO and President; Steve Putman, Senior Vice President and General Counsel; and Chris Bonner, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. I'll now turn the call over to Taylor.
Taylor DeWalch: Thanks, Natalie. Good morning, and thank you for joining us. We made meaningful progress during the second quarter as we continue to execute our differentiated strategy. We advanced development activity across our Shelby Trough and Haynesville expansion position, remained active with mineral acquisitions and continued creating value across our broader portfolio through leasing, marketing and asset management efforts. We also announced a 7% increase in our quarterly distribution, reflecting the strength of our business and our commitment to delivering sustainable returns to unitholders. More broadly, activity across our core areas is moving in the right direction. Adamas continues to execute on its development program. Revenant progressed activity during the quarter, and Caturus has now begun operations on acreage covered by its agreement. We also see increasing operator activity throughout the Haynesville. At the same time, strong oil production from the Permian and Bakken, coupled with higher oil pricing contributed meaningfully to our results during the quarter and further highlights the benefit of Black Stone's diversified portfolio. As we've stated previously, we believe 2026 represents …