BP Says Goodbye to Alaska After 60 Years

Image Source: BP plc – IR Presentation By Callum Turcan On August 27, BP plc (BP) announced it was selling its entire Alaskan operations to privately held Hilcorp Alaska (an affiliate of Hilcorp Energy Company) for $5.6 billion. BP sold Hilcorp some of its Alaskan assets five years ago and both companies have had a working relationship since then. This truly marks the end of an era as BP was long a staple of Alaska’s oil & gas industry. BP operates the Prudhoe Bay oil field, one of the largest in the world, which was responsible for over half of Alaska’s oil production in 2018. Additionally, BP is a major shareholder in the company that owns the 800-mile long Trans … Read more

Kinder Morgan Reaches a Deal to Divest Stake in Canadian Spin-Off

Image Shown: A look at Kinder Morgan Inc’s (KMI) massive oil & gas infrastructure operations that crisscross North America. The natural gas midstream giant is selling its Canadian segment by divesting its 70% equity stake in Kinder Morgan Canada and the US portion of the Cochin pipeline to Pembina Pipeline Corporation (PBA). Image Source: Kinder Morgan Inc – IR Presentation By Callum Turcan Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio holding Kinder Morgan Inc (KMI), a giant in the natural gas midstream space, finally reached a deal to sell the remaining stake in its Canadian spin-off. On August 21, Kinder Morgan announced that it had sold its 70% equity stake in TSX-listed Kinder Morgan Canada Limited (KMLGF) along with the US portion of … Read more

Tallgrass Energy’s Growth Runway Shorter Than Expected

Image Source: Tallgrass Energy LP – IR Presentation By Callum Turcan Valuentum’s High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio parted ways with Tallgrass Energy LP (TGE) on August 1, as we wanted to reduce our exposure to the midstream space. We don’t like TGE as much as we once did and think it’s best to move on to better opportunities. Please note Blackstone Group Inc (BX), through affiliates of Blackstone Infrastructure Partners, closed its purchase of Tallgrass’ general partner in March 2019 which included those parties acquiring a 44% economic interest in Tallgrass. In 2018, Tallgrass reorganized as a C-Corp which we were very supportive of. Additionally, the midstream company has been very free cash flow positive historically (when defined as net … Read more

Coca-Cola, Visa, and More from Valuentum

Coca-Cola, Visa and More from Valuentum — Hi everyone, — Hope you’re doing great.  — Just yesterday, we closed out six more ideas in the Exclusive, four capital appreciation ideas and two short-idea considerations, for solid “gains.” The success rates in the Exclusive publication continue to be fantastic. I encourage members to upgrade, to give the Exclusive a chance, to see if the ideas may be of interest. Subscribe to the Exclusive publication here. —  Facebook’s Meteoric Rise — Image: The market doesn’t offer opportunities like this every day. I’d say we might see something so obvious, so opportunistic, maybe once every couple years. That was Facebook in late 2018. It’s now up 60%+ from its 52-week low. — We have a lot … Read more

Kinder Morgan Modestly Disappoints But Its Problems Are Transitory

Image Shown: Kinder Morgan Inc expects a lot of organic growth opportunities will be generated via surging domestic demand for natural gas and rising natural gas export capacity in the US. Image Source: Kinder Morgan Inc – IR Presentation By Callum Turcan Natural gas pipeline giant Kinder Morgan Inc (KMI), a holding in our simulated Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio, reported second quarter earnings for 2019 on July 17 which generally disappointed. Problems at its Elba LNG development in Georgia and weaker realized prices for raw energy resources produced by its upstream CO2 segment held down Kinder Morgan’s financial performance. We appreciate Kinder Morgan’s focus on fiscal discipline and see several of its problems as transitory, other than the raw energy … Read more

Checking Out ARAMCO, Saudi Arabia’s Sleeping Giant

Image Source: Trending Topics 2019 By Callum Turcan Recent events have piqued our interest in the actions of Saudi Arabian Oil Company, better known as ARAMCO (ARMCO), the giant in charge of the Gulf nation’s hydrocarbon industry. Saudi Arabia is reportedly restarting ARAMCO’s IPO according to comments made by the Saudi Energy Minister, reviving a plan the country had previously put on ice primarily due to expectations that the company wouldn’t fetch a high enough valuation to suit the needs of the Kingdom. Many view ARAMCO as the most valuable company in the world, but whether this is a USD$2 trillion company or not is in the eye of the beholder (many see that target as overly ambitious, as do … Read more

New Highs! The December Call Has Been Well-Rewarded

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.   “The less the prudence with which others conduct their affairs, the greater the prudence with which we must conduct our own.” – Warren Buffett (2018) By Brian Nelson, CFA While others are celebrating, we know better. This market could come down upon itself like nothing else. But for now. We breathe a sigh of relief. A company, Valuentum, that emphasizes the importance of timing and then delivers on that cold December 26 day to move to all-in in the newsletter portfolios is something remarkable (see image below). We cannot go back to … Read more

Markets Swooning, Expect Extreme Volatility, Finger on Put-Option Trigger

Image shown: We notified members December 26 that we had  moved  the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio to a “fully invested” position, from a 30% and 20% cash “weighting” at the high end of the range, respectively.  — No change to simulated newsletter portfolios…at this time.  — Hi everyone, — Hope you’re navigating these tumultuous markets well.   — If you recall, during the holiday season last year, we had moved the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio to “fully invested.” See image above (point of the arrow). Because many members were traveling and out of the office, not all were able to read the notification until a week or two after. They were … Read more

When We Get It “Wrong” — How To Think About Our Methodology In Action

When We Get It “Wrong” — How To Think About Our Methodology In Action Image: Chipotle (CMG) was one of our best calls in 2019.   Image: Verint (VRNT) was a controversial idea in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio that worked out great for members this year.   Image: Visa (V) has been the top-weighted idea in the Best Ideas Newsletter for as long as we can remember. In December 2017, when we migrated to weighting ranges for ideas in the newsletter portfolio, the company’s “weight” was 8.6%. The image above shows its performance relative to the S&P 500 (SPY) since then. Source (pdf). — Let’s talk about the newsletter portfolios, some areas where we’ve made mistakes, and how some members use our services. … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending April 19

Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending April 19. 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 American Water Works (AWK): now $0.50 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.455. AptarGroup (ATR): now $0.36 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.34. Celanese (CE): now $0.62 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.54. CIT (CIT): now $0.35 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.25. Civista Bancshares (CIVB): now $0.11 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.09. CNX Midstream Partners (CNXM): now $0.3732 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.3603. Cross … Read more