Money and Investing Thoughts

As part of the preparation for the new blog on shipping stocks I will be starting soon I have been checking into the recent performance of this sector by subsector. The results have been interesting.

Right now I have a universe of 42 U.S. listed shipping stocks. All of the tracking is on an equal dollar weighted basis. I have divided these stocks into several sectors, some are obvious, some are not and some have overlapping component stocks. Through the time I am writing this early Friday afternoon here are the returns (share price only) YTD for the sectors:

• All shipping stocks: +5.92%
• Dividend paying shipping stocks: +7.23%
• Tanker stocks: +8.62%
• Dry bulk carrier stocks: -2.75%
• Container and mixed fleet stocks: +13.62%
• Shipping stocks with suspended dividends: -6.19%

As you can see there are some interesting results when you break down the sector. Those of you that know the sector well probably understand the correlation between the two subsectors with negative returns.

The purpose of my new website is to provide current new, analysis and discussion on the stocks in this sector. Right now I am taking RSS and email subscriptions to build up the readership for the launch. Hop on over to www.shippingstocksblog.com and sign up so you do not miss a thing when the blog kicks off.

The most recent post on this site was the 400th since I started writing the blog in July of 2007. It has been an interesting ride and growth experience. Before starting this blog I had done very little writing outside of sales presentations. For those of you who do not personally know me, I am not employed in any way in the securities industry. I was employed in the industry for several years in the early 1990′s but have gone in other (several) directions since then.

Writing for this site has allowed me to be a paid contributor on several different websites. I have also become quite proficient at setting up hosted WordPress blogs and websites. For examples click here and here. I really enjoy the process of setting up these sites and look forward to the future launch of The Shipping Stocks Blog.

At this point in time this site gets about 6,000 to 8,000 page views per month. Many of my articles are picked up by Seeking Alpha, where they are typically viewed by another 5,000 to 7,000 readers (per article). I also have a small following of readers who get my new articles by email. (Feel free to sign up in the box, upper right corner). So I will hazard a guess that somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000 people read at least something I have written each month.

If you do the math 400 posts works out to about 20 per month. I do this on my own time and have found that (sometimes) forcing myself to write almost everyday definitely helps the growth process. I hope my articles are becoming better written and more interesting as time goes along.

I am in the process of once again upgrading the look and feel of the site (4th time). I have purchased a premium theme and think the new look will keep things interesting. For all of you who read my stuff regularly or occasionally, Thanks.

tlas Pipeline Partners | Investor Relations : News Release.

Atlas Pipeline Partners (APL: 37.54 +0.14 +0.37%) has announced a 4th quarter distribution of 38¢ per share, down significantly from the 96¢ of the previous quarter. This borders on good news as the market has been pricing APL like it would not be able to pay any distribution or even stay solvent. The market liked the announcement, adding 17% to APL’s value on Wednesday. The new payout rate still give the stock a 20% yield.

Shareholders of the traded general partner, Atlas Pipeline Holdings (AHD: 0.00 N/A N/A) did not fare as well. The distribution for AHD was reduced from the previous 51¢ to just 6¢. General partner LP’s are a leveraged bet on continued distribution increases of production LP’s. As you can see a distribution reduction is not a happy occurance for the GP.

From the press release it appears that APL was able to reduce their debt load by something like $80 million. Total debt is in the neighborhood of $1.5 billion, so they have a long way to go. Probably the most encouraging note in the release was this line:

We are hopeful that NGL prices (up approximately 50% from December 2008) will continue to recover, and that our unitholders may receive the benefit from such recovery.”

A significant portion of Atlas Pipeline’s revenues are generated from the sales of NGL, so this is a good sign. My last post concerning APL discussed considering the stock as a call option on increasing energy prices while collecting any distributions that come along, I believe the theory still holds.

Note: APL is a component of this site’s hypothetical Income Portfolio.

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Each week I recap the results of the WilderHill New Energy Global Innovation Index, symbol NEX, and published by New Energy Finance Ltd. The index consists of approximately 90 stocks from 22 countries. The NEX is the tracking index for the PowerShares Global Clean Energy Portfolio ETF (PBD: 9.26 +0.14 +1.54%). For reference, the NEX has a 52 week high of 436.21 and closed 2008 at 177.99.

For the week ending at market close on Monday the NEX lost 3.5%, finishing at 165.5. The NASDAQ and S&P 500 declined 1.6% and 2.6% for the same period.

The wind sector gained 0.3% for the week, the only sector in positive territory. Japan Wind Development and a couple of European wind companies pulled up the sector. Wind and solar energy are the largest sectors in the index and solar was at the other end of the performance spectrum for the week. Solar energy was the worst performing sector, losing 7.7%. Evergreen Solar led the way down shedding 26.9% of its value.

In other sector results, energy efficiency lost 5.4% in spite of Cree gaining 10.4% on growing revenue and profits. Power storage was a similar story, down 3.4%. Several battery makers had losses of 12% to 19% while Belgian battery material manufacturer gained 13%. The sectors were not moving en mass last week.

Here are the best and worst performing stocks from the index for the week:

NEX top gainers since 20/01/09
Umicore UMI + 13.0%
Japan Wind Development 2766 + 11.7%
Novozymes A/S Series B NZYM-B + 11.3%
Cree CREE + 10.4%
Canadian Hydro Developers KHD + 9.3%

NEX top losers since 20/01/09
Evergreen Solar ESLR - 26.4%
Meidensha 6508 - 21.5%
JA Solar Holdings JASO - 20.6%
Johnson Controls JCI - 20.3%
Ultralife ULBI - 19.9%

Atlas Energy Resources – News and Press Releases.

Atlas Energy Resources (ATN: 0.00 N/A N/A) has announced the 4th quarter distribution will be 61¢ for shareholders of record on February 9, 2009. The distribution is the same amount as the previous two quarters. Even after today’s price bump the stock is still sporting a yield near 17%.

ATN is well hedged through the rest of 2009 and into early 2010. They are  positioned to continue to grow their well numbers and production even at the current low natural gas prices. If past practices hold they should release year end result in a couple of weeks.

ATN is a component of this site’s hypothetical Opportunities Portfolio and a personal holding.

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