Pembina Pipeline CorpPPL.TOTOP PICKOct 17, 2025Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Jun 30, 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.
PPL is more pure-play pipeline infrastructure. Better dividend yield. Contracted cashflow gives you earnings and revenue visibility. This would be his preference.
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.
Complementary to ARX -- it's more of a producer with some infrastructure, whereas PPL is almost 100% infrastructure. Temporarily ran up on news about working with META. Now KKR is selling its minority stake in a JV with PPL, but concern is that PPL is the one who's going to buy it (to the tune of $5-7B).
(Analysts’ price target is $58.88)He doesn't really care. Company's really well positioned for future LNG in 2027, has great amount of gas processing all throughout the Basin. Power demand from nat gas is on the rise. He continues to buy at full weights in all client accounts. Yield is 5.33%.