Lyle SteinAltagas LtdALA.TOCOMMENTSep 26, 2017

Perfect HALO stock. Wonderful US East Coast assets, wonderful Canadian West Coast assets. Strong midstream operations in the middle feed both. Gas is the backup data source for data centres if electricity goes out. Yield is 2.71%.

Way more to go. Great value, good growth, data centre growth, natural gas tailwinds linked to getting offshore. Trades at 18x PE, growing only 11%. 

A bit overbought, and if you want to be a day trader you could sell a bit. By doing that, you often miss the story as it goes higher. If he were being cute, he might sell a call in this environment.

ALA gives you a mix of energy infrastructure (~45%) with regulated utilities (~55%). Utility component gives more stability, but lower dividend. He's not a huge fan of utilities unless they're tied to AI infrastructure buildout.

PPL is more pure-play pipeline infrastructure. Better dividend yield. Contracted cashflow gives you earnings and revenue visibility. This would be his preference.

Lagged the TSX last year. Is half utilities and half gas distribution, which confuses the market. She likes both businesses and keeps buying it. Is down a little because they issued equity. Is seeing strong demand for their projects.

Is holding on. Data centres need nat gas power. ALA distributes to Virginia, home to 50% of US data centres. They also export propane and liquids to Asia. The yield has declined though.

One of his largest positions. When assets are good, any pain is temporary. Bright future with LPG export capacity coming on. Increases dividend 6% a year.

Steady cashflow from nat gas distribution and energy infrastructure assets. Utility segment provides stability. Growth through exports and storage, but both parts of the business still move in step with natural gas. Trending upward. Value is 8/10, fundamentals 7/10. Expects upside of ~8-10%. Analysts are mixed between Buy and Outperform, with a few Hold and Underperform. She'd wait for a 5% pullback.

She owns and prefers BIP.UN, CPX and H. Despite some commodity exposure, its cashflows, balance sheet, and long-term contracts provide better visibility.

Has done well, bit of a pullback recently. Value: 8/10. Sees about 10-12% upside from here. Analysts are mixed between Outperform and Buy. Q3 saw EPS normalize, but revenue was mixed. Remains on-track for full-year guidance despite the slight miss. Debt's not well-covered by operating cashflow. Neutral from a short-term technical perspective.

Instead she owns ENB, H, and CES.

Likes oil & gas a lot. US has rebuilding of the strategic petroleum reserve, which should create a floor under the market. Narrative in the market is that oil and gas are oversupplied.

Stock's weakening of late, and he doesn't know the specifics as well as he should. But he likes the space. Looking at the chart, stock doesn't seem to have come off all that much.

The question was on what companies would benefit from the thirst for more power. Capital Power, TransAlta, Brookfield Renewable, Gibson could be candidates. He feels Altagas could fit better into Mark Carney's vision of trying to get natural gas offshore.

A higher-quality player that you could put $$ into today. 

A larger position, as it's more stable. Half is gas infrastructure, and half is utilities. Working on a propane export facility off coast of BC. Good management. Dividend safe and increasing. Own forever.

He owns the preferreds. Is down 2% this week perhaps from a large seller, but he sees no other cause. Is for dividend investors, though don't expect big growth over time. It has risen his year on the AI rally, that data centres need energy. 

The caller asked if she should continue to keep it as 10% of her portfolio. His concern is that 10% is too high and should be dropped by half to 4 or 5%. No stock should take up 10% of a portfolio. The company itself is a great one: stable and solid with a long history of dividends and modest growth.

(Note the short timeframe.)  Plays right into the gas theme. Exciting part is the Washington Gas & Light subsidiary, which ships nat gas to the county with 15% of the world's data centres. Great yield. Best utility in NA.