Dividend Growth Newsletter Portfolio Delivers Again in 2019

Dividend Growth Newsletter Portfolio Delivers Again in 2019   —  Note: Due to the New Year holiday, we will be releasing the January 2020 editions of the Dividend Growth Newsletter and High Yield Dividend Newsletter Thursday, January 2.  —  By Brian Nelson, CFA    Hi everyone!   I haven’t forgotten about you, our dividend growth friends. At Valuentum, we’re huge fans of dividend growth stocks, and we use our valuation expertise to augment a newsletter portfolio of some of the best dividend growers on the market. Unlike other shops and most blogs that focus more on dividend growth track records, we also like to look forward, not only in the application of the forward-looking Dividend Cushion ratio, but also as … Read more

Devon Energy Completes High-Grading Process, Free Cash Flows Remain Elusive

Image Shown: An overview of Devon Energy Corporation’s remaining asset base, which consists of upstream oil and gas operations spread across four major unconventional plays in the US. Image Source: Devon Energy Corporation – December 2019 IR Presentation By Callum Turcan Times are tough in the oil & gas patch, especially for upstream producers of raw energy resources like Devon Energy Corporation (DVN). Not only are global oil prices low, which drags down natural gas liquids pricing for products like propane and butane, but North American natural gas supplies are trading at rock-bottom prices as well. Devon Energy has attempted to cope by divesting less economical assets and shifting all of its focus towards its best well locations, a process … Read more

Apache Comes Up Empty in Suriname, Shares Plummet

Image Source: Apache Corporation – November 2019 IR Presentation By Callum Turcan On December 2, Apache Corporation (APA) announced that its first exploration well off the coast of Suriname (a small nation in northern South America) was a dud. The Maka Central-1 well was drilled to a total depth of 6,200 meters (~20,300 feet) in Block 58 and drilling activities commenced in late-September. While the well was testing two Upper Cretaceous plays, neither play appeared to have commercial level of hydrocarbons (more information will be provided by management on this issue in the near future) so Apache opted to drill down to a total depth of 6,900 meters (~22,600 feet) to test a third Cretaceous play. This news sent shares … Read more

Chesapeake Energy’s Pain Indicates Nothing “Safe” About Energy MLP Distributions

Summary There is nothing “safe” in the stock market, and given the track record of the distributions of pipeline MLPs, there is nothing “safe” about pipeline MLP distributions. The MLP business model continues to be phased out, a trend that we anticipated when we made our bearish call on the group in June 2015. Chesapeake Energy’s pain is a yet another reminder of the pipeline MLP group’s exposure to energy resource pricing through the health (or rather ill-health) of its customer base. We continue to encourage pipeline operators to disclose free cash flow (cash flow from operations less all gross capital spending) prominently in press releases, alongside other industry-specific metrics. Investors of Chesapeake could get completely wiped out in a … Read more

High Yield Dividend Newsletter Portfolio Holding BP Sees Cash Flow Profile Improvements Ahead

Image Source: BP plc – Third quarter 2019 earnings infographic If you may wish to add the High Yield Dividend Newsletter to your membership, please click here. By Callum Turcan On October 29, BP plc (BP) reported third-quarter 2019 earnings, and shares of BP have since climbed higher due in part to the energy giant’s nice cash flow profile and likely due to the improving outlook for a narrow US-China trade deal. We include BP in our High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio as a way to play the raw energy resource market and generate sizable income streams while taking advantage of the protection its large midstream (pipelines, storage facilities, etc.), downstream (refineries and petrochemical plants), and retail (gas stations/convenience stores) operations … Read more

High Yield Dividend Newsletter Portfolio Holding Magellan Midstream Keeps Growing

Image Shown: Magellan Midstream is focusing heavily on growing its fee-based operations, with an eye towards expanding its refined products pipeline segment. Image Source: Magellan Midstream Partners L.P. – August 2019 IR Presentation If you may wish to add the High Yield Dividend Newsletter to your membership, please click here. By Callum Turcan On October 31, Magellan Midstream Partners L.P. (MMP) — 6.6% yield — reported third quarter 2019 earnings. Its quarterly GAAP operating income climbed 8% year-over-year due to a combination of top-line growth (GAAP revenues up 3% year-over-year) and lower operating expenses (GAAP operating expenses down 3% year-over-year). Cost reductions were largely a function of reduced cost of products sales, meaning Magellan Midstream’s marketing division had a decent quarter … Read more

Nostalgia?

Valuentum’s November Dividend Growth Newsletter! Image shown: Valuentum’s Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio. Since inception, the newsletter portfolio has *never* had a constituent that experienced a dividend cut. We moved to weighting ranges beginning in 2018.— Today is Dividend Growth Newsletter day!  — As I think back over the many years we’ve managed the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio, it has been an incredibly rewarding experience to be able to help so many dividend growth investors, not only in finding big winners, but also in avoiding big losers. If you recall, many dividend growth investors were swept away by the MLP craze years ago, and we saved our membership, perhaps in impeccable fashion. Who remembers? — From “getting out” of General Electric … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending October 18

Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending October 18. The dividend reports of covered firms on this list will be updated shortly with the new information. To access our dividend reports use the ‘Symbol’ search box in our website header. Firms Raising Their Dividends This Week 1st Source (SRCE): now $0.29 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.27. Aquesta Financial Holdings (AQFH): now $0.11 per share annual dividend, was $0.10. Brunswick (BC): now $0.24 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.21. Canadian Banc Corp (CNDCF): now CAD 0.0883 per share monthly dividend, was CAD 0.0795. CNX Midstream Partners (CNXM): now $0.4001 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.3865. Credit Suisse Crude Oil Shares Covered Call … Read more

ICYMI: Interview with Valuentum’s President Brian M. Nelson, CFA

Catch up with Valuentum’s President Brian M. Nelson, CFA in a recent interview with dividend growth investor Arne Magnus Lorentzen Ulland of the blog stockles. By Brian Nelson, CFA Recently, I was interviewed by Arne Magnus Lorentzen Ulland of the blog stockles. Arne is a dividend growth investor like many of you, and I sincerely hope you enjoy the interview he put together. I’m very grateful for his interest. His questions were fantastic. We discuss why and how I incorporate independence and integrity into the service at Valuentum. We go into detail regarding why Valuentum views stocks the way it does, and how Valuentum combines enterprise valuation and the information contained in prices in its stock-selection process. I discuss the pitfalls … Read more

Saudi Arabia Attacked, Oil Prices Shoot Higher

Image Shown: Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure was attacked over the weekend, causing WTI and Brent to rally at the start of the trading session. By Callum Turcan Disaster struck this weekend when several drones took out the Abqaiq oil processing facility and the massive onshore Khurais oil field in Saudi Arabia (KSA) on Saturday, with WTI and Brent both surging on the news once trading resumed at the start of the week. The Khurais oil field produces around 1.5 million barrels of crude per day and the Abqaiq oil processing facility is the largest in the world. Saudi Arabia’s oil production capacity was reduced by 5.7 million barrels of crude per day due to these attacks and the country is … Read more