El Paso Pipeline Partners LP

• A Company Pumping Liquid Gold Into Investors’ Portfolios

  By Ryan Guenette - April 22, 2013 | Tickers: EPB, KMI, TRP, WMB

  A leading natural gas transportation company, El Paso Pipeline Partners LP (NYSE: EPB) has just announced it will raise its quarterly dividend payout to $0.62 per share, representing the 5^th dividend increase the company has made since the beginning of 2012. This trend of dividend increases has sent El Paso’s quarterly dividend payouts up 376.92% since the company’s IPO in late 2007, from $0.13 more »

• Thinking Dividends

  By Federico Zaldua - February 27, 2013 | Tickers: MO, SAN, EPB, E, PM

  Several times in this blog I have stressed how important it is to focus on how you, as a minority passive investor, get your cash back. You should think of stocks as actual cash for cash investments (if you make a cash investment, you should receive a stream of cash payments). Unfortunately, most "investors" just buy speculatively. This means people buy because they think others are buying and, eventually, prices more »

• Top Dividend Stocks For The Ultimate Retirement Portfolio

  By Cagdas Ozcan - February 11, 2013 | Tickers: AHGP, ARLP, MO, FUN, CLF, DRI, EPB, EEP, ETP, GCI, INTC, LO, MRK, NRP, NTI, PBI, RAI, TCPC, TNH, WPZ

  Each one of us dream of sitting on our seats next to the fireplace talking to our grandchildren when we are retired, while our investments are filling our pockets. That is one sweet goal of every of us, and it is never unachievable. It's all about knowing where to invest for the latter part of your life.

  For me, one of the best ways of calculating fair value estimation more »

• King Kinder Expands its Empire

  By Satarupa Bose - February 11, 2013 | Tickers: APC, CPNO, EPB, KMI, TRP

  In the latest act of acquisitions in the US oil and natural gas industry, Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI), the company with the largest pipeline operation network in the US, has expanded its reach in some vital shale plays. Kinder Morgan acquired the natural gas pipeline operator Copano (NASDAQ: CPNO) for a value of around $5 billion, including debt, which allows the company access to many of the shale plays that more »

• A Pipeline to Financial Success?

  By Ryan Guenette - January 3, 2013 | Tickers: EPB, ETP, EPD, KMP, WPZ

  A SWOT analysis is a look at a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and is a tremendous way to gain a detailed and thorough perspective on a company and its future. As the new year draws to a close, I would like to pinpoint a leading pipeline transportation and energy storage company, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (NYSE: KMP).

  Strengths:

  • Dividend: At the moment, Morgan pays out quarterly dividends more »

• The Perfect Utility Portfolio

  By Federico Zaldua - December 7, 2012 | Tickers: EIX, EPB, PEG

  Utilities are known, at least in developed countries, to be stable income generators. This is the case in the US, where the government sets reasonable rates of return to encourage infrastructure investments and high quality service. I chose a portfolio of my three favorite utility companies. They will offer stability through a low beta and a reasonable cash flow stream through dividends. All this, plus equity upside potential.  What follows more »

• No Bankruptcy in Retirement, I Hope

  By Robert Zimmerman - December 3, 2012 | Tickers: AINV, EPB, PAA, PSEC

  After celebrating my birthday recently, a certain reality hit home: I have to start thinking more seriously about my retirement.  Reading the executive summary for Social Security reveals I’m looking at a 16% cut in my benefits.  Social Security cuts may be off the table during “fiscal cliff” negotiations,  but one thing is clear: I’m not going to do as well as my father when it comes to more »

• Can You Live on Your Dividends?

  By Chris Hodge - November 12, 2012 | Tickers: AI, BBEP, EPB, TNH |

  One of the most liberating days of my life was when I realized I could go to a part of the world with an abundance of the Three S's (sun, sand and super-cheap) using only my dividends. One of the worst days of my life that doesn't involve a breakup or arrest was when those dividends fell to pieces. Those were sad times indeed. But it got me more »

• Keep Your Oil, OPEC!

  By Robert Zimmerman - November 2, 2012 | Tickers: COG, EPB, KIOR, LINE, PAA

  And good riddance, too.

  Oil industry economist and consultant Philip K. Verleger, Jr. recently predicted that the United States will export more energy than it imports within a decade.  Five, certainly ten years ago, to make such a claim would require someone smoking some pretty strong stuff.  Today, they would likely be viewed as overly optimistic.  That optimism may not be altogether unfounded.  First, American consumers and businesses are more »

• Making Money from Passing Gas

  By Robert Zimmerman - November 1, 2012 | Tickers: COG, EPB, XCO, KMI, WPZ

  Natural gas, that is.
  
  Below is my favorite chart regarding the US natural gas industry.  

  
  
  That big blue wedge labeled “shale gas,” to me really spells O-P-P-O-R-T-U-N-I-T-Y.  So how do you make money on America’s growing shale gas industry?  Certainly, investing in natural gas producers is one strategy. However, not all natural gas producers are created equal.  EXCO Resources (NYSE: XCO) has been clobbered over the past two years more »

• 3 Companies to Play the Energy Renaissance

  By Chad Henage - October 17, 2012 | Tickers: EPB, HFC, OIS

  Unless you have been living under a rock, you probably know there is a lot of money being spent on energy production and discovery. Whether you are looking for a company that provides the products to help companies drill for oil, or a company that is involved in the production of natural gas and oil, investors should have some exposure to the energy business. To try and find some attractive candidates in this industry, I used the Fool.com CAPS Screener to search for companies with real growth in both revenue and income. I didn't want companies that are too small since it is difficult to build a great business from the ground up. However, I also didn't necessarily want a huge conglomerate that everyone already knows about. To find a good middle ground, I recently ran a screen with the following criteria: mid-cap size, 10% revenue growth and 20% EPS growth in the last 3 years. This screen returned the following companies that looked attractive: El Paso Pipeline Partners LP (NYSE: EPB), HollyFrontier Corp. (NYSE: HFC), and Oil States International, Inc. (NYSE: OIS).

• Buy this Energy Company for Strong Income

  By Meena Krishnamsetty - October 14, 2012 | Tickers: EPB, KMI, KMP

  Rich Kinder, founder of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (NYSE: KMP), is a visionary who has built one of the largest pipeline companies in the country.  The company operates over 62,000 miles of natural gas pipeline, is the largest independent transporter of petroleum in the U.S., the largest transporter of CO2 in the U.S., the second largest oil producer in Texas, and is the largest independent terminal operator more »

• Do MLPs Offer a Safe way to Invest In Energy?

  By Joshua Bondy - August 21, 2012 | Tickers: ACMP, APL, EPB, ETP, MWE

  Master limited partnerships offer strong yields and a relatively stable way to invest in the oil and gas sector. They provide pipelines and processing services which are less vulnerable to price fluctuations in the underlying commodities. By not holding land and reserves on their balance sheets they are not forced to take large write downs when the price of natural gas enters a bear market.  In the midst of negative more »

• 2 Stocks that Make Bond Investors Look Foolish

  By Justin Carley - May 31, 2012 | Tickers: AMLP, BWP, EPB, EPD, L |

  Natural gas prices are up 45% from their April low!  Is this the start of the coming surge that just had to happen ever since the price broke below $5, $4, $3, $2?  Not likely.  I detailed in a mid-April piece to stay clear of E&P companies with heavy reliance on natural gas.  It is still early and the context was based on a time horizon on two or more »

• Buy Bonds? Yeah I Don't Think So

  By Chad Henage - March 20, 2012 | Tickers: EPB, HAS, PM

  A recent CNBC article said, “Despite Stock Rally, Most Investors Flock to Bonds”. If you've ever wanted proof that the average investor is a terrible market timer, here it is. Think about this, in the last four months in particular, as the bull-market surged in one of the biggest rallies in years, investors poured money into bonds. In the past four weeks, bond funds have taken in seven times as much money as equity funds. When asked to explain this phenomenon, the article points out that, “retail investors still think about 2008.” In an inexplicable twist, people are setting money aside in savings accounts instead of even bonds. In particular, individuals have put $2.3 trillion into savings accounts over the past five years. This is an amount equivalent to 2.4 times the amount of money that has gone into bonds.

• 5 Energy Stocks to Benefit from an International Oil Crisis

  By Christopher French - February 8, 2012 | Tickers: CPNO, EPB, GEL, KMP, WES

  The cost of energy has become extremely reactive to global politics and any number of events in the Middle East, Asia or Europe could have drastic effects on prices over 2012 and 2013. The likelihood of high oil and gasoline prices over the future makes the energy sector an extremely attractive place to look for solid dividend stocks that will help diversify your portfolio and provide consistent gains that you more »

• 5 Unique Energy Plays For Big Dividend Income

  By Christopher French - February 6, 2012 | Tickers: CPNO, EPB, GEL, KMP, WES

  Widely used in the energy sector is the formation of companies as limited partnerships (L.P.) and master limited partnerships (MLP). The terms are often interchangeable and a stock listed as an L.P. instead of an Inc. or Corp. will have been formed as a publicly traded partnership. As partnerships, these energy companies often pay out a majority of net earnings or cash flow in the form of distributions more »

• Kinder Morgan and El Paso Merger - A Double Opportunity.

  By Nikhil Shamapant - December 13, 2011 | Tickers: EP.DL, EPB, KMI

  This is a part of my, Behind the Curtain: Special Situations for Explosive Returns, series.

  Understanding The Businesses: Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI), and El Paso Corporation (UNKNOWN: EP.DL)

  Excerpt from Kinder Morgan Website:

  “Kinder Morgan is the leading transporter and marketer of carbon dioxide in North America.  We deliver approximately 1.3 billion cubic feet per day of CO2 through about 1,300 miles of pipelines. We are also the more »