TacticScaleWhat Kirby Does & How It Makes Money (KEX)
Updated October 2026 · reflects Kirby's latest reported financials
Largest US inland tank barge operator plus engine and power equipment services. It earns freight and towing fees for moving customers' bulk liquid cargo on its barge fleet.
How Kirby makes money
It earns freight and towing fees for moving customers' bulk liquid cargo on its barge fleet. It also sells parts, repair and rebuild services, equipment rentals, and manufactured oilfield, power generation, and battery storage equipment.
What Kirby does
Kirby Corporation, founded in 1921 and based in Houston, is the main US operator of domestic tank barges. Its Marine Transportation segment moves petrochemicals, black oils, refined petroleum products, and agricultural chemicals across the Mississippi River System, the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, and coastwise along three US coasts, Alaska, and Hawaii. The fleet includes 1,105 inland tank barges, about 266 inland towboats, 28 coastal tank barges, 24 coastal tugboats, and a small offshore dry-bulk unit. Its Distribution and Services segment sells after-market parts and service for engines, transmissions, reduction gears, and electrical systems, and rebuilds this equipment for oilfield, marine, power generation, on-highway, and industrial customers. It also rents generators, compressors, lift trucks, and refrigeration trailers. It makes and remanufactures oilfield equipment such as pressure pumping units, as well as power generation, electrical distribution, and battery energy storage systems. The company was called Kirby Exploration Company until 1990.
Products & services
- Inland tank barge transportation (1,105 barges, ~266 towboats)
- Coastal tank barge and tugboat services
- Offshore dry-bulk barge transport
- Engine, transmission and reduction gear parts and rebuild services
- Generator, compressor, lift truck and refrigeration trailer rentals
- Pressure pumping units, power generation and energy storage battery systems
What is Kirby worth?
On an owner-earnings DCF, Kirby's most-likely value is about $166 versus a recent price near $136 (22% below fair value). But TacticScale only calls a stock undervalued when the price sits below its conservative no-growth floor (~$92) with a margin of safety — so the honest verdict here is “Fairly priced — no edge.” Fair value earns its keep only at the extremes, not in the wide middle.
Price sits in the normal range — fair value isn't actionable here; it earns its keep only when price drops below the no-growth floor, or runs to roughly double the optimistic case.
Analysis, not advice. Fair value is a margin-of-safety estimate from a deterministic owner-earnings DCF, not a price target or recommendation. See the full breakdown →
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