Piedmont Natural Gas Co. Inc. (PNY)
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- The 20 Highest of the High-Yield Dividend Aristocrats
- The Realities of Natural Gas
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The Realities of Natural Gas [view article]
all the regulation gurus never explain how you get demand reduction when you artificially lower the price of a finite commodity through regulation. ReplyThe 20 Highest of the High-Yield Dividend Aristocrats [view article]
Just how is FITB cutting their dividend good timing on your part, especially considering you baghold their largest shareholder (CINF)."Most investors are told to buy when everyone else is selling." Thanks but I prefer to buy when everyone is buying. Reply
The 20 Highest of the High-Yield Dividend Aristocrats [view article]
FITB is now paying a 6.5% yield. My bet is that gets smaller later this year too. ReplyThe 20 Highest of the High-Yield Dividend Aristocrats [view article]
Don't forget to consider Countrywide as an entry for BAC. It's running about 90% of the deal's value, which I don't think is enough of a spread to cover the risk involved, though there has been no indication of BAC backing away. If you're interested in BAC and want to play arbitrageur, consider CFC if the spread widens. Replyture.org
The 20 Highest of the High-Yield Dividend Aristocrats [view article]
I think BAC has too much pride to cut their dividend. The credit spreads are really coming into a more normal range. If BAC can really make $4/share in the next 12 months, I think they will be able to afford their dividend with breathing room. ReplyThe 20 Highest of the High-Yield Dividend Aristocrats [view article]
I'm sure BBT will perform because it has already indicated it plans to INCREASE its dividend. It has a share buyback program but there are no current purchases because they suspend buying in the last month of a quarter. They are very conservative and have adopted the rationale that it would be like insider trading once they know how the quarter is shaping up. Also, the market doesn't understand that the tax ruling in its case (which has caused current writeoffs for other banks) will not affect it any further. As it was its own legal case, it had already accrued the potential liability and has already paid all of the taxes. This is an incredible bargain and yield while waiting for the sector to recover. ReplyThe 20 Highest of the High-Yield Dividend Aristocrats [view article]
Some of the banks on that list have will never pay a dividend after the current quarter. ReplyThe 20 Highest of the High-Yield Dividend Aristocrats [view article]
I've been looking at BAC for a while now, but can't seem to pull the trigger. The problem with banks is that they are a black box, I have no idea what is inside. Another problem, is that I see a Democratic congress and President curtailing a chunk of their revenue streams, namely, usurious interest rates and fees. ReplyGrowth
Investor
The 20 Highest of the High-Yield Dividend Aristocrats [view article]
Actually my timing for posting this couldn't have been better - FITB just cut their dividends today.I am still wondering whether BAC will cut or not. Most investors are told to buy when everyone else is selling. The $1mln question is to buy financials or not to buy them.
In early 2000 Phillip Morris ( Altria) was yielding higher than average yields at a time when the tobacco industry was under tremendous scruitiny. Fast forward 8 years from that point and MO has performed pretty well. I haven't bought any financials yet ( other than the ones which I have disclosed), and the reason for that is because the payout ratios are pretty high for me.
I wonder if 8 years from now I would be kicking myself for not purchasing all of the 20 stocks listed above or not..
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The 20 Highest of the High-Yield Dividend Aristocrats [view article]
Be very, very careful with this list. Here be some monsters. ReplyThe Realities of Natural Gas [view article]
So, did I do the right thing when I signed a 5 year Declining Natural Gas Price plan at 41.9 cents per cubic meter on April 24 and falling by one cent per cubic meter each year thereafter??Reply
The Realities of Natural Gas [view article]
The article was rather wordy but made valid points about the misconception of unbundling and deregulation and their premise that they would lead to lower prices more supply and customer choice. Deregulation has been an failure. If you don't believe me ask the citizens of Georgia and California.A central point that is missed in this whole conversation is that price volatility really became a reality after deregulation. Up until then, nat gas was a minimal player in electrical production. Gas was primarily used for heating, water heating and in manufacturing and chemical processing such as the fertilizer industry. With the advent of efficient gas turbine technology it found a niche in electrical generation, starting with peak load production in the hot summer months and then by supplying some year round demand. Turbines were relative cheap and the environmental permitting process was a breeze compared to coal and especially nuclear. It was cheap and easy (is that concise enough?) and became the path of least resistance. If you don't believe me, does Calpine Energy ring a bell? They were going like gang busters installing turbines all over California and other states back in the late 90's but subsequently, like the tech bubble, they busted as well. Never the less, as a result, the normal summer period where gas used to put into storage at low prices for winter heating use was gone. Gas was being bought and used in the summer for peak electrical generation keeping the price high and introducing more price and supply volatility into the market. That my friends... is why we are in the situation we are today. Gone are the 20 year firm contracts for 3-4 dollars an mcf and they are not coming back. It is a shame because gas is a great efficient and environmentally friendly source of fuel for generating heat and heating water at the source. And, it could be a great fuel for transportation but we have ruined it for the time being. Large scale electrical production is NOT the best use even though turbine technology has made great strides, it still looses energy/efficiency as the electricity is transported from the producer to the end user. I have been in the business for 20 years and have witnessed this first hand, but if you don't believe me....read some articles by Boone Pickens, you will hear the same story.
As for investments, natural gas is a great place to be pipelines and local distribution companies are great dividend low risk plays with steady growth. Exploration and production companies offer more risk and possible returns and the support network companies that surround these companies are attractive as well. I am invested in all of those areas and have been reasonably successful. Not gangbusters mind you, but I sleep well at night. Good Luck.
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The Realities of Natural Gas [view article]
"Probably the most important observation on the ambitions of natural gas deregulators was rendered by Professor David Teece of the University of California (1990). According to him, market liberalization in the U.S. has already “jeopardized long-term supply security and created certain inefficiencies.” He also notesthat “While more flexible, a series of end-to-end, short-term contracts are not a substitute for vertical integration, since the incentives of the parties are different and contract terms can be renegotiated at the time of contract renewable. There is no guarantee that contracting parties will be dealing with each
other over the long term, and that specialized irreversible investments can be efficiently and competitively utilized.”
For this reason I never miss an opportunity to remind my students that as far as I am concerned, large and complex gas systems operating in a climate of uncertainty are most efficiently run on an integrated basis that emphasises long-term contracting. This kind of arrangement promotes optimally dimensioned installations, and although it may not be mentioned in your economics textbook, if pipeline-compressor-pr... systems which fully exploit increasing returns to scale in order to obtain minimum costs are to be readily financed and expediently constructed, then – as I interpret the evidence – the kind of uncertainties associated with short to medium term arrangements should be kept to a minimum. Failing to do so could cause a reduction in physical investment, and in the long run lead to higher rather than lower prices."
Garbage dressed up in unintelligible English.
Let me try to summarize.
In the first paragraph he cites a "scholar" that believes de-regulation energy was a bad idea, and is citing one reason for his belief. I worked for two regulated entities - one in energy and one in telecommunications. Regulation simply doesn't work - regulated industries are inefficient and are focused on perpetuating themselves. "Creative Destruction" is a foreign concept to a regulated entity - and necessary if we are to deal with a changing environment.
In the second paragraph our good professor eschews regulation, (good for him!), in favor of long-term commitments. I also believe in long-term commitments. My wife and I have been married almost 50 years. Good for the kids, and good for each of us. I wish our author had taken a course in expository writing while he was a freshman. It could have helped. Reply
Investor
The Realities of Natural Gas [view article]
Pipeline gas in the Northeast and on the West Coast will originate from the Pinedale anticline in Wyoming--tens of trillions of cubic feet of it.On a worldwide basis, we are nowhere near the peak of natural gas production. A couple of decades ago many foreign finds of natural gas were considered a nuisance as part of a quest for oil. The problem is, much of the gas is stranded and costs billions to market. Nevertheless, LNG imports are growing and, as a natural gas investor, I'm concerned about the growth of LNG imports in North America. Reply
Sterling
The Realities of Natural Gas [view article]
HUGE FREE GAS RESOURCES IN BLAKE RIDGE; OFFSHORE SOUTH CAROLINA.The Blake Ridge hydrate resource is super-giant sized but the 250 meter thick free-gas underneath is the real commercial prize. The Hydrate zone above serves as a nice cap to trap the free gas underneath.
The entire Blake Ridge-Carolina resource has been estimated to contain between 1,000 to 1,300 trillion cubic feet of methane, mostly 99% pure. An estimated 25-40% of this is a free gas resource much of which is commercially viable today, (Estimated, 100-250 trillion cubic feet recoverable).
Significant clean free gas reserves and associated lower concentration Hydrates are known to be locked beneath the seafloor under vast areas within the Blake Ridge-Carolina Rise region. These super-giant Probable free-gas reserves cover an area, which is 75% within the US OCS 200 mile EEZ.
1. The Strategic Nine Corp., Consortium has made an International Resources Rights Claim, for the approximately 25% area of the Blake Ridge Gas resource located outside of the US 200 mile EEZ.
2. The Consortium has also made application for a very large unsolicited OCS Petroleum Extraction Lease on a non-competitive basis, within an area of the Blake Ridge-Carolina Rise, located beyond state jurisdiction but inside the US EEZ, within an area currently covered by a nation-wide Federal moratorium on new offshore leasing until June 2012. A waiver has been requested.
The Blake Ridge Free gas resources have the following attributes;
1. Confirmed presence of super-giant areal extent of high FREE GAS saturation (proved by coring and well logging, and by geophysical methods) in shallow, easily accessible reservoirs.
2. Occurrence within fine sediments much of sufficient reservoir quality to support horizontal well-based fracc production methods.
3. Site accessibility through close proximity to existing major US East coast markets and other infrastructure.
4. Additional 1,000 Tcf speculative resources of Gas Hydrates, some of which may become economically viable in the future.
WWW.STRATEGICNINE.COM
Messoyakha Gas Field : While the west postulates methane-hydrates recovery, the Russians have been producing from it for years. The Messoyakha gas field in the frozen northern Russia is an excellent example of a hydrocarbon accumulation from which gas has been produced commercially from hydrates, mostly by simple reservoir depressurization.
At least one-third and, most likely, two-thirds of the Messoyakh reservoir, which for 13 years has been in commercial production, occurs in the form of natural gas hydrates.
It is conservatively estimated that about 36% (about 5 billion cubic meters) of the gas withdrawn from the Russian field has come from the gas hydrates.
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