Stock Talk – March, 2016

Stock Talk

David Daub

David Daub

I’m a novice whose goal is to generate dividend income over several years. I’ve been looking at opportunities in the depressed energy sector, first thinking about Chevron which has a consistent record of increasing dividend rates over some years.
Now as I look at your “conservative” portfolio I see that Energy Transfer Partners is a buy, with a substantially higher dividend relative to cost. Why would I not buy ETP over Chevron? How do you define “lowest-risk picks”?
Thank you for your help.

Igor Greenwald

Igor Greenwald

Chevron is much safer in absolute terms based on its balance sheet, but I believe ETP has more upside. Please see a fuller answer in the new issue that will be going up later today, and apologies for the delay responding to this

Peter

Peter

What are the implications of SunEdison´s accounting problems for Terraform? Is TERP still a best buy, given that it hasn´t filed it´s 10-K (btw, what is a 10-K and why is it important)?

Donald Shaw

Donald Shaw

i have same questions as peter re terraforms. Any chance for an answer soon?

Igor Greenwald

Igor Greenwald

Igor Greenwald

Igor Greenwald

The 10-K is the annual report, and its filing is mandated by the SEC and in turn a pre-requisite for continued stock market listing and often required by lenders as well. That said, I believe TERP’s delay is mostly a function of the allegations made against SunEdison and the extra scrutiny these as well as Tepper’s lawsuit against SunEdison have brought. I expect the 10-K to be filed in the coming weeks without a material consequence to TerraForm’s long-term value. It’s not formally a Best Buy for us, at least not yet (we try to not constantly tinker with that list) but it is a pretty darn attractive buy at this price all the same.

Peter

Peter

What do you think of ETE´s plan to dilute WMB´s share in still to be established ETC by granting it´s managers awards under an incentive plan? Is it true that this will dilute WMB´s share by 10%? Is there no protection for WMB against that kind of action in the merger agreement? What protection will WMB unitholders have against dividend cuts of ETC once the initial 2 years are over?
Also, given ETE´s recent reassessment of the merger´s synergies (down from $ 2 billions to $ 170 millions), would you advice WMB unitholders to vote yes or no when asking to agree to the merger?

Igor Greenwald

Igor Greenwald

I wrote about ETE and Williams a bit in the introduction to the new issue: http://www.investingdaily.com/energy-strategist/articles/24980/the-case-for-mlps/ To answer your specific questions, yes, ETE is diluting WMB shareholders’ stake in WMB by nearly 10%, all part of its drive to get Williams to reject or renegotiate the deal. As for protections and bad faith, I imagine this could well end up in court. That possibilty aside, this game of chicken will end one way or another in the next three months, at which point the market will be free to reconsider the current discount on excellent, strategically positioned midstream assets, whether they’re still owned by two companies or one.

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