Tag Archives: Ferrellgas Partners

Ferrellgas Acquires Propane Unit From Western Petroleum

By Eric Volkman, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Ferrellgas Partners has beefed up its core assets with an acquisition. The company bought the propane operation of Western Petroleum, a privately held company based in Utah. The terms of the purchase were not disclosed.

The acquisition is a geographically strategic one for Ferrellgas, as Western Petroleum‘s customer base is in parts of Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming. This region has been “long targeted for growth,” Ferrellgas said in the press release announcing the purchase.

The firm has been on an acquisition streak lately. This most recent buy is its fifth since the beginning of its current fiscal year last August.

The article Ferrellgas Acquires Propane Unit From Western Petroleum originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Eric Volkman has no position in Ferrellgas Partners, and neither does The Motley Fool. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Today's Top 3 Energy Stocks

By Dan Dzombak, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Oil prices were on the move today as the market overlooked the threat of Cyprus to Europe. At 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Brent crude was up 0.12% to $107.61 and WTI crude was up 1.51% to $93.84. U.S. natural gas was up 0.03% to $3.94.

Today’s top 3 energy stocks
Among companies with market caps greater than $1 billion, today’s energy stocks leader was Walter Energy , which was up 3.51% to $29.45. Walter Energy is a pure-play metallurgical coal producer with mines around the U.S. and Canada.

Today, Walter Energy announced a $350 million private placement of debt due 2021, $250 million of which will go toward paying down debt. Walter Energy and other coal producers have been hit hard the past two years as low natural gas prices caused natural gas to steal market share from coal among utility companies. The company’s stock has also been beaten down as investors fret over a high $2.4 billion debt load.

This past year, the company has faced criticism and a proxy challenge from Audley Capital, which is looking to replace five members of Walter Energy’s board at the company’s annual meeting next month. On March 11, the current board laid out its case in a letter to shareholders and said they are “intensely focused on maximizing the value of your investment in the Company.” Audley Capital begs to differ and hopes investors give their nominees fair consideration.

Second among energy stocks today was Ferrellgas Partners L.P. up 2.93% to $20.05 on no real news. Ferrellgas Partners is a master limited partnership (MLP) focused on the distribution of propane. It is the second-largest distributor of propane in the U.S. with a 9% market share, behind AmeriGas Partners , who holds a 15% market share. Ferrellgas, though, is the largest distributor of portable propane tanks, operating under the Ferrellgas and Blue Rhino brands. Ferrellgas has largely grown through acquisitions in the heavily decentralized propane distribution business and the company believes there is plenty more opportunity for acquisitions in the future with 68% of the market independent retailers.

Third among energy stocks today was BP , up 2.71% to $42.00. Yesterday the oil and gas giant completed the previously announced sale of its stake in TNK-BP to Russian firm Rosneft in exchange for 18.5% of Rosneft and $4.5 billion in cash. Today, the company announced it would buy back $8 billion worth of shares, roughly the same amount it spent forming TNK-BP.

 BP CEO Bob Dudley said, “BP is moving on to the next phase of its business in Russia, becoming the largest private shareholder in Rosneft, Russia‘s leading oil company. In the process we have also released cash, equivalent to at least six years of BP‘s anticipated future dividends from TNK-BP. We look forward now to working closely with Rosneft and together developing opportunities to create value for both companies.”

There are many different ways to play the energy sector, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

The 25 Highest-Yielding MLPs in March

By Dan Dzombak, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Dividend investing is popular again. Investors have taken to heart Jeremy Siegel‘s studies showing that higher-yielding stocks tend to offer greater returns over time than stocks that offer low or no yields do.

One particular area that has garnered interest over the years is master limited partnerships. Investors are drawn to MLPs for their high yields and tax deferment. MLPs don’t pay taxes at the corporate level, so the tax burden then gets passed to the investor. Without getting into too much detail, because of the structure of the partnerships and the distributions, investors are entitled to a serious tax deferral. Investors should fully understand what they are in for before buying MLPs, but for those willing to do the research, it can be very profitable.

The highest yields can be very tantalizing. As long as a stock yielding 15% doesn’t see its share price fall, you’ll make 15% in one year! In more cases than not, however, an astronomical yield is a bad sign for a stock. Since yields and stock prices move in opposite directions, a high yield usually means that investors have begun to worry about the business and driven down its stock price.

However, certain types of companies, such as MLPs, have to pay out most of their cash flow as distributions, so their yields will be higher than “normal.” Dividends are not guaranteed; you need to make sure that a business is generating enough cash to pay its dividend, or your investment could be disastrous.

I ran a screen for the highest-yielding MLPs. The only limitation I’ve set is that the MLPs must have a market cap greater than $1 billion.

Here are the top 25 highest-yielding MLPs the screen produced.

<td …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

 

Company Name

Market Cap (millions)

Dividend Yield

1

Northern Tier Energy

$2,887

16.20%

2

QR Energy

$1,018

11.20%

3

Natural Resource Partners

$2,428

9.95%

4

Ferrellgas Partners

$1,619

9.77%

5

Breitburn Energy Partners

$1,940

9.66%

6

PVR Partners

$2,181

9.65%

7

Eagle Rock Energy Partners

$1,407

9.21%

8

NuStar Energy

$3,897

8.75%

9

Legacy Reserves

$1,495

8.74%

10

Exterran Partners

$1,043

8.31%

11

Suburban Propane Partners

$2,436

8.20%

12

Crestwood Midstream Partners

$1,374

8.13%

13

Atlas Resource Partners

$1,136

8.08%

14

Boardwalk Pipeline Partners

$6,304

7.79%

15

PetroLogistics

$2,025

7.72%

16

Regency Energy Partners

$4,135

7.61%

17

Energy Transfer Partners

$14,200

7.59%

18

Ferrellgas Partners's Earnings Beat Last Year's by 57%

By Seth Jayson, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Ferrellgas Partners (NYS: FGP) reported earnings on March 7. Here are the numbers you need to know.

The 10-second takeaway
For the quarter ended Jan. 31 (Q2), Ferrellgas Partners beat expectations on revenues and missed estimates on earnings per share.

Compared to the prior-year quarter, revenue shrank significantly. Non-GAAP earnings per share expanded significantly. GAAP earnings per share expanded significantly.

Margins grew across the board.

Revenue details
Ferrellgas Partners reported revenue of $658.9 million. The four analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ predicted revenue of $633.5 million on the same basis. GAAP reported sales were 21% lower than the prior-year quarter’s $829.3 million.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Dollar amounts in millions. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

EPS details
EPS came in at $0.74. The seven earnings estimates compiled by S&P Capital IQ forecast $0.81 per share. Non-GAAP EPS of $0.74 for Q2 were 57% higher than the prior-year quarter’s $0.47 per share. GAAP EPS of $0.70 for Q2 were 49% higher than the prior-year quarter’s $0.47 per share.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

Margin details
For the quarter, gross margin was 35.7%, much better than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 12.8%, 530 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 8.4%, 410 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. (Margins calculated in GAAP terms.)

Looking ahead
Next quarter’s average estimate for revenue is $530.2 million. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is $0.41.

Next year’s average estimate for revenue is $1.90 billion. The average EPS estimate is $0.63.

Investor sentiment
The stock has a two-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 124 members out of 174 rating the stock outperform, and 50 members rating it underperform. Among 45 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 29 give Ferrellgas Partners a green thumbs-up, and 16 give it a red thumbs-down.

Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on Ferrellgas Partners is underperform, with an average price target of $14.08.

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The article Ferrellgas Partners’s Earnings Beat Last Year’s by 57% originally appeared on Fool.com.


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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

3 Predictions for Next Week

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

I went out on a limb last week, and now it’s time to see how that played out.

  • I predicted that Sturm, Ruger would move higher on the week. The firearm maker was reporting on Wednesday, and demand for weaponry amidst the gun-control debate has been explosive. How’d things go? Shares of Sturm, Ruger climbed nearly 5% higher on the week. I was right.
  • I predicted that the tech-heavy Nasdaq would outperform the Dow Jones Industrial Average. . This has been a tricky call lately, so how did it play out this time? It was a tense week for the major exchanges, though they ultimately squeezed out modest gains. The Nasdaq closed 0.3% higher. The Dow, on the other hand, managed to clock in with a gain of 0.6% on the week. I was wrong.
  • My final call was for priceline.com to beat Wall Street‘s quarterly profit target. The fast-growing online travel portal has been growing quickly, blowing through Wall Street‘s bottom-line forecasts with ease over the past year. Analysts were looking for a profit of $6.54 a share during the seasonally sleepy holiday quarter, and the dot-com speedster came through with net income of $6.77. I was right.

Two out of three? I can do better than that.

Let me once again whip out my trusty, dusty, and occasionally accurate crystal ball to make three calls that may play out over the next few trading days.

1. Ferrellgas Partners will shoot higher on the week
Ferrellgas Partners has been a gas for investors. The limited partnership is one of the country’s largest propane distributors, and the high-yielding units have been big winners as investors tiring of low payouts on traditional fixed-income vehicles take on risk to chase higher payouts.

Ferrellgas reports on Thursday. Analysts see a big pop in profitability despite a drop in revenue. The company announced its regular quarterly distribution of $0.50 a unit on Tuesday, so that should soothe investors. It should be a mixed report, but one that will remind investors of the high-yielding opportunity here.

My first call is for Ferrellgas to close the week higher.

2. The Nasdaq Composite will beat the Dow this week
Tech has been a big winner in recent years, so betting on tech over stodgy blue chips has been a good bet for me more often than not.

I’m going to stick with this pick. Most of the names in the composite are just too cheap at this point, and the results this earnings season weren’t as bad as some worrywarts had feared. The market is ripe for the tech-stacked secondary stocks to continue to outpace the 30 megacaps that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

3. Main Street Capital will beat Wall Street’s earnings estimates
Some stocks are just flat-out better than others.

When it comes to business development companies, Main Street Capital has been a strong performer. Shares soared 44% last year, and that’s before …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance