EUROPE’S ENERGY CRISIS IS KEEPING ENERGY PRICES HIGH
America leads the world in oil and gas production. We believe midstream energy infrastructure offers predictable cash flows to investors.
Williams Companies Promotes the Little Blue Flame
Last Thursday Williams Companies (WMB) held their investor day in New York. WMB owns and operates an extensive natural gas network, and is a top ten U.S. midstream energy infrastructure company. Like most big pipeline companies, it’s omitted from the Alerian MLP indices because it’s not an MLP. CEO Alan Armstrong conceded that the company […]
Why Inflation Isn’t What You Think
The Federal Reserve has long wrestled with stubbornly low inflation. A decade ago few would have expected this to be a problem, but Personal Consumer Expenditure (PCE) inflation, the Fed’s preferred measure, is coming in at 1.8% this year. Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members have been considering allowing inflation to overshoot their target of […]
MLPs Weak in November, As Usual
The Alerian MLP Index now has almost a 24 year history. Investors whose experience pre-dates the 2014 high will fondly recall many strong years. Since 1996 the compounded annual return is 11.3% including distributions, even though the AMZX remains 44% off its August 2014 high. MLPs are a shrinking part of the midstream energy infrastructure […]
Tallgrass Endgame Approaches
Most sell-side analysts are constrained in providing critical analysis of the companies they cover, because their firms are usually trying to do investment banking business with them. In spite of all the regulations intended to create a separation between research and banking, typically less than 10% of analyst ratings are a sell (see Why Wall […]
Canadian Pipelines Lead The Way
Sentiment among energy investors remains poor. The S&P E&P ETF (XOP) is -21% for the year. Energy has sunk to 4% of the S&P500. The Alerian MLP Infrastructure index (AMZIX) is -3% YTD and reached a low of 44% off its August 2014 high last week. This contrasts with the S&P500, which is +26% for […]