Pembina Pipeline CorpPPL.TOBUY ON WEAKNESSAug 18, 2020Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Jul 21, 2026. Market Open.
Both benefit from AI centre demand. Pembina is building a 1.8 gigawatt natural gas plant in Alberta. Half of ALA's business is in the US, regulated utilities, in Virginia--the world capital of data centre traffic. ALA also has activity in Western Canada. ALA's growth rate is higher than Pembina. ALA gets the slight edge.
APO has pretty smart people, and they're seeing an opportunity here. Purchase was from KKR, so nothing much changes.
As for PPL itself, trading a bit expensive with growth catalysts of 5-7%. Nice, visible project backlog. Nice dividend. Wouldn't add here, but you'll do OK if you own it.
Still thinks KEY is the better buy.
It had a lot of growth ahead, then the pandemic threw that into question. It's waiting on the future demand for energy and pipelines. The monthly dividend is safe as long as contracted players continue to pay, but the risk is in those contracts voiding and defaulting. This applies to peers like Keyera. PPL is more diversified and bigger vs. its peers. He's picking away at it, but this is a volatile space. Oil stocks are grinding higher, though, as the WTI price keeps rising and shale oil is not coming back and Canadian production is flatlining. Buy at low-$30/high-$20s. Hold at mid-$30s and hope things will normalize.