Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AEGR) has not been public that long, but it is expected to sell up to 3.25 million shares of its common stock and another 1 million shares by certain pre-IPO stockholders this week.  The filing itself was for up to $86,606,500.00 and the book-runners are Jefferies and Deutsche Bank; co-managers are listed as Leerink Swann, Needham & Company, and Collins Stewart.

DCP MIDSTREAM PARTNERS, LP (NYSE: DPM) has filed an S-3 offering intended to raise up to $150 million accessing a “shelf registration.”  The entity’s common units are listed on the NYSE, under the symbol “DPM.”   At current trading levels the company’s market cap is $11.75 billion. In Tuesday trading, common units closed at 39.71. The 52-week price range is $28.82 to $44.17.

Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (NYSE: SIX) has filed an S-3 offering to cover additional shares resulting from the company’s stock split.  The company’s common stock trades on the NYSE under the ticker symbol “SIX.”  At current trading levels the company’s market cap is slightly in excess of $2 billion.   In Tuesday trading, shares closed at 74.60, up 1% over Monday’s closing price.  The 52-week price range is $31.76 to $80.50.  Be advised, the shares registered may not be sold entirely or at all but they cover up to 13,569,256 shares of common stock.

Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: WAVX) has filed a shelf registration that allows it to raise up to $30 million using a “shelf registration” to replace an expiring shelf registration.  At current trading levels the company’s market cap is roughly $228 million.   In Tuesday trading, shares closed at 2.89, up 21% over Monday’s closing price.  In first-hour trading today, the shares are in decidedly volatile, trading at $2.78, down 6.7%.  Its 52-week price range is $1.76 to $5.31.  The reason we note this one is

Most recently, we featured this heavily discounted and huge drag of a secondary offering from Five Star Quality Care Inc. (NYSE: FVE).  This one has bounced nearly 10%, and that is only about one-fourth of the share damage that came from announcing the secondary offering in the first place.

Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc. (NYSE: IVR) was another fresh secondary offering and that mortgage-REIT has a monster yield that investors have to consider against peers.

JON C. OGG

Alexander & Baldwin (NASDAQ: ALEX) Raised to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) Cut to Neutral at Mizuho (overseas).
CenterPoint Energy Inc. (NYSE: CNP) Reiterated Buy with $20 target at Argus.
DCP Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE: DPM) Started as Outperform and $45 target at Credit Suisse.
Fuel Systems Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSYS) Reiterated Underperform at BofA/ML.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) lowered estimates but maintained $190 price target by Credit Suisse.
Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS) Raised to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) Added to Focus List at Credit Suisse.
Mosaic Co. (NYSE: MOS) Cut to Sector Perform at Scotia.
Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT) Reiterated Buy and target raised to $57 at BofA/ML.
Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE) Reiterated Buy with $61 target at Argus.
StanCorp Financial (NYSE: SFG) Cut to Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
STR Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: STRI) Cut to Sell at Auriga.
Tractor Supply Company (NASDAQ: TSCO) Reiterated Buy and raised target to $65 at BofA/ML.
Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN) Maintained Buy with $40 target at BofA/ML.
Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ: WFMI) Reiterated Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks. 

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JON C. OGG

The partnership listed the use of proceeds as being to fund its previously announced acquisition of a 33.33% interest in the DCP Southeast Texas business from DCP Midstream, LLC.  It also noted that the offering from this morning is not contingent upon the consummation of the acquisition.

Joint book-runners are Citi, BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital and Wells Fargo.  DCP has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 375,000 additional common units to cover over-allotments, if any.

DCP Midstream Partners is down about 3.9% at $34.83 shortly before the open and the 52-week trading range is $24.90 to $36.66.  The $87 million compares to a market cap at yesterday’s close of roughly $1.25 billion.

JON C. OGG

Avago Technologies Limited (NASDAQ: AVGO) has been public barely one year, but the a fairly short period of time, yet the company just filed to sell up to 24,840,000 ordinary shares.  All shares being sold are on behalf of holders rather than coming from the company via joint book-runners of Deutsche Bank Securities, Barclays Capital, Morgan Stanley and Citi.  Shares were down some 3.6% at $21.50 per share in the after-hours session versus a 52-week trading range of $14.33 to $23.69.

DCP Midstream Partners LP (NYSE: DPM) has filed to sell 2.6 million common units to reduce its debt balances under its revolving credit facility.  BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley will be the joint book-running managers of the offering.  This comes to nearly $90 million based upon the $33.83 unit price close on Tuesday versus a market cap of $1.17 billion.

EV Energy Partners LP (NASDAQ: EVEP) filed to sell 3 million common units to fund part of the purchase price of the recently announced Mid-Continent region acquisition.  Citi, Raymond James, RBC Capital Markets, Wells Fargo Securities and UBS will act as joint book-running managers in the offering.  This will generate close to $100 million in proceeds versus a market cap of $959 million.

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR) just filed a shelf registration statement with the SEC that would allow the networking company to sell up to $1.5 billion of mixed securities.  The company can sell any combination of common  or preferred stock, depository shares, warrants, debt securities, and/or units.  No underwriters were named, and the use of proceeds will be earmarked for for general corporate purposes… “which may include working capital, capital expenditures, other corporate expenses and acquisitions of complementary products, technologies or businesses.”  Juniper’s market cap is $15 billion.

Molina Healthcare (NYSE: MOH) priced a 4 million share secondary offering of common stock at $27.00 per share versus a $27.54 close Tuesday and versus a 52-week trading range of $17.05 to $31.80.  The company will reduce its borrowings under its $200 million senior secured credit facility with the proceeds, and Molina noted that this credit facility had an outstanding balance of $105 million. BofA Merrill Lynch and J. P. Morgan Securities were acting as joint book-running managers for the sale.

Regency Energy Partners LP (NASDAQ: RGNC) filed to sell 14 million common units to pay down its outstanding debt under its revolving credit facility.  Morgan Stanley, BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Citi, Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan, UBS, and Wells Fargo are listed as the joint book-running managers for the sale.  This will generate about $345 million based on current prices versus a market cap of $2.3 billion.

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JON C. OGG

Chinese solar stocks have gained 19.7% in the past month. The best performing stocks in the sector are JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd., (NYSE: JKS) up 33.5%, JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd., (NASDAQ: JASO) up 24.2%, and Solarfun Power Holdings Co. Ltd., (NASDAQ: SOLF) up 22.5%.

MLPs (Master Limited Partnerships) have gained 7.9% in the past month. The best performing stocks in the sector are Transmontaigne Partners L.P., (NYSE: TLP) up 17.1%, Exterran Partners, L.P., (EXLP) up 16.9%, and DCP Midstream Partners LP, (NYSE: DPM) up 15.2%.

Chile stocks and ADRs have gained 7.5% in the past month. The best performing stocks in the sector are Banco de Chile, (NYSE: BCH) up 16.4%, CorpBanca S.A., (NYSE: BCA) up 16%, and LAN Airlines S.A., (NYSE: LFL) up 14.1%.

This simple calculation, though, hides the financial power of theseoutfits. Let’s look at the Atlas companies as an example. AtlasPipeline reported a net loss of $279 million for the second quarter of2008. But, adjust the company’s revenues to eliminate an unrealizedloss on derivatives, and Atlas Pipeline earned a profit of nearly $30million on revenues of $457 million. The company distributed$0.96/common unit, an increase of more than 10% from the same period in2007.

That’s what investors look for in these limited partnerships–cashflow. As long as the pipeline companies throw off nice gobs of cash,everybody’s happy. However, in order to generate ever-increasingamounts of cash, the pipeline companies need to get bigger.Transportation rates are set by federal and state governments, and acompany’s profit is fixed by regulation. Pipeline companies use thisnice, steady, guaranteed income to grow.

In the last few years, low interest rates and easy credit have spurredinvestment in new and expansion pipeline systems. Now, however, tightercredit and higher interest rates could threaten some of the more highlyleveraged companies. Atlas Pipelines, for example, holds total debt ofnearly $1.3 billion, nearly equal to it’s market cap of $1.56 billion.The company’s current ratio is 0.76, not a confidence-building number.

There will come a point when financing becomes too costly, for pipelinecompanies like Atlas and others, and that will lead inevitably toconsolidation. The stronger companies, like Enterprise and KinderMorgan, could go on a shopping trip. Given the expected increasingstress on financial institutions in the next 12-18 months, pipelinecompanies with weak balance sheets could become an endangered species.

Paul Ausick
August 19, 2008