Posts for Ticker ‘EP’

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades, Downgrades, Initiations (ACE, ADSK, ADP, BCS, EAT, EP, LXK, NRG, PAYX, TRV)

These are this Wednesday’s top ten analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations which we have seen early on from Wall Street research calls:

ACE Limited (ACE) Started as Outperform at RBC Capital Markets.
Autodesk (ADSK) Raised to Buy at Kaufman Bros.
Automatic Data (ADP) Started as Outperform at RBC Capital Markets.
Barclays plc (BCS) Started as Outperform at FBR.
Brinker International Inc. (EAT) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
El Paso Corp. (EP) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Lexmark (LXK) Raised to Neutral at JPMOrgan.
NRG Energy (NRG) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
Paychex (PAYX) Started as Market Perform at RBC Capital Markets.
Travelers (TRV) Started as Outperform at RBC Capital Markets.

You can join our open email distribution list to get updates on top analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader alerts, IPO’s, secondary offerings, Warren Buffett and other guru activity, M&A and more.

JON C. OGG
OCTOBER 21, 2009

Posted on: October 21, 2009 – 7:56 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Top Analyst Downgrades (ARO, AKAM, AIZ, EP, HOT, SVU)

These are the top Wall Street analyst downgrades and cautious research calls seen early this Friday morning:

Aeropostale (ARO) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
Akamai (AKAM) Cut to Market Weight at Thomas Weisel.
Assurant (AIZ) Cut to Neutral at SunTrust.
El Paso (EP) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Starwood Hotels (HOT) Cut to Hold at Soleil.
SuperValu (SVU) Cut to Equal Weight at Barclays.

You can join our open email distribution list to get updates each morning on analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader alerts, IPO’s and secondary offerings, Warren Buffett and other guru activity, M&A and more.

JON C. OGG
October 9, 2009

Posted on: October 9, 2009 – 7:41 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , ,

Top Analyst Downgrades (ARLP, BJS, CHKP, EP, FST, INFY, ISRG, STAR)

These are some of the top pre-market analyst downgrades and negative research calls from Wall Street we have seen early this Tuesday morning:

Alliance Resource (ARLP) Cut to Market Perform at Wachovia.
BJ Services (BJS) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Checkpoint Software (CHKP) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
El Paso (EP) Cut to Market Perform at Wachovia.
Forest Oil (FST) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
Infosys Tech (INFY) Cut to Hold at Societe Generale.
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) Cut to Market Perfoirm at JMP Securities.
Starent Networks (STAR) Cut to Hold at Cantor Fitzgerald.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: April 28, 2009 – 6:44 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , ,

Goldman Sachs Hits Oil Sector (BHI, EP, XOM, KMP, MMP, EPB, MRO, MUR, KGS, SLB)

Goldman_sachs_logoOil_well_logo_2_2In a perhaps late research call in the oilpatch, Goldman Sachs has downgraded the exploration & production sector to Neutral from attractive and downgraded the oil services sector to Neutral from Attractive.  Interestingly enough. in all of the downgrades for these sub-sectors there are actually some upgrades in the group.  Below are some of these top calls in the sector from Goldman Sachs:

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Posted on: October 13, 2008 – 6:00 am in Analyst Calls, Oil & Gas, , , , , , , , , ,

Legislation and Risks To Natural Gas Development (CHK, WMB, XTO, OXY, APA, EP, DVN)

The American Exploration and Production Council (AXPC) today released a study by Wood Mackenzie, an energy consulting firm, claiming that costs to the natural gas industry associated with the pending alterations to the Lieberman/Warner Climate Security Act of 2007 put at risk the development of US natural gas resources. The 25-member council includes Chesapeake (NYSE:CHK), Williams (NYSE:WMB), XTO Energy (NYSE:XTO), Occidental (NYSE:OXY), Apache (NYSE:APA), El Paso (NYSE:EP), and Devon (NYSE:DVN).

Here’s the money quote from the AXPC press release: "…it is likely that a significant share of
government-imposed consumer emission allowance costs assessed on processors would actually be paid by exploration and production companies in the near term as funds are diverted, contracts are renegotiated, and the market adjusts to this new commodity burden." The conclusion is that if E&P companies must pay for carbon allowances, they will spend less on production, prices for natural gas will rise, and consumers will face higher prices due to limited availability on natural gas.

Well, you can’t blame gas producers for trying, but this is akin to yelling "Boo!" during a horror movie: who cares? What the producers are probably really upset about is the Act’s restriction on how much the cost of the allowances they will be allowed to recover from customers. If emission costs are borne 100% by producers, the Wood Mackenzie study estimates that nearly 50% of projected production for 2012-2017 becomes uneconomic to produce. If 50% of emissions costs are forced on producers, up to 14% of production becomes uneconomic.

The price of natural gas for US consumers is likely to depend far more on the spot price of LNG than it is on the cost of carbon allowances. If LNG prices are high (and there’s every reason to believe they will be), the price of US-produced natural gas will also be high. The AXPC may be fighting an unnecessary battle on this issue. Congress has determined that the best way to assess carbon allowances is at the wellhead or the point of import. Once that’s done, producers, processors, and consumers are treated the same. The producers might not like it, but they may just have to deal with it.

George Soros noted that speculation is driving up energy prices, and we also saw T. Boone Pickens call for $150 per barrel for oil by the end of this year.

Paul Ausick
May 29, 2008

Posted on: May 29, 2008 – 10:31 am in Oil & Gas, Politics, , , , , , ,

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (CENT, CSUN, EP, FSLR, INTU, MDT, MU, NOV, NUE, PALM)

These are ten of the analyst calls we are focusing on this morning:

  • Central Garden (NASDAQ: CENT) raised to Buy at Piper Jaffray.
  • China Sunergy (NASDAQ: CSUN) raised to Hold at Jefferies.
  • El Paso (NYSE: EP) Cut to Neutral from Buy By Goldman Sachs.
  • First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) Cut To Underperform From Mkt Perform By FBR.
  • Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) Cut To Hold From Buy By Citigroup.
  • Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) Raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
  • Micron Technology (NYSE: MU) Raised to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.
  • National Oilwell Varco (NYSE: NOV) Cut to Add from Buy at Calyon.
  • Nucor Corp (NYSE: NUE) Cut to Neutral from Buy at UBS.
  • Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) Cut to Sell from Neutral at UBS.

Jon C. Ogg
May 21, 2008

Posted on: May 21, 2008 – 7:03 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

T. Boone Pickens: $150 Oil (EP, SD, XCO, CLNE, YHOO)

CNBC just hosted oil magnate T. Boone Pickens this morning in a sit down interview with Becky Quick.  Now that his $125 target on oil has been hit, he’s making a new prediction on oil prices.  He said oil prices are continuing to go up as 85 million barrels per day is as good as supply can get and 87 million barrels per day is the demand.  He also said the president wasted his time going to Saudi Arabia asking for more oil.

Pickens just said he thinks oil could and will likely go to $150 per barrel this year, and that will translate to a deficit spending in the U.S. of $900 Billion rather than $600 Billion at $100 oil.  As far as the old joke of $80 before he’s 80, he did joke about $160 before he’s 160 years old.

Pickens said natural gas is the one oil replacement we have and he also noted that ethanol is a joke and can only max out at about 6%.  He noted that these oil and gas exploration companies have made significant finds in natural gas:

  • El Paso Corp. (NYSE: EP)
  • SandRidge Energy, Inc. (NYSE: SD)
  • EXCO Resources Inc. (NYSE: XCO)

Of course he also noted wind energy, but noted solar too.  Becky asked him about his Clean Energy (NASDAQ: CLNE) company and he even dismissed that noting this was much bigger than his company.

This was a totally off-oil topic piece, but may be of interest as well.  As far as his opinion on Carl Icahn going into Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), he said he followed him into the stock and he owns 10 Million shares of Yahoo! now too.

Elsewhere in the oil patch:

Jon C. Ogg
May 20, 2008

Jon Ogg produces and edits the "10 Stocks Under $10" newsletter and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: May 20, 2008 – 7:16 am in Oil & Gas, , , , ,

Anadarko Scores With Western Gas IPO (APC, WES, EP, EPB)

In June 2006, Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE:APC) bought both Western Gas Resources and Kerr-McGee for a total of more than $23 billion. Last night, Anadarko announced that it had priced an IPO of 18.75 million shares for Western Gas Partners, LP (NYSE: WES) at $16.50 per common unit. APC also granted underwriters an overallotment of 2.82 million shares. Book-runners include UBS, Citi, Credit Suisse, and Morgan Stanley, with a host of other institutions getting into the act as well.  Here were details from our coverage of the filing.

The new company’s assets are a natural gas treatment plant in Texas, and gas gathering and pipeline systems in the Rocky Mountains and several Midwestern states. In 2007, these assets produced $116 million in revenue and $24 million in earnings.

If the overallotment is exercised, the limited partners will own about 40% of Western Gas Partners, LP, and Anadarko will own the rest, including the general partner interest. According to the filing, Anadarko receives the 2% general partner interest plus incentive distributions that could rise to 50% of available cash after the distributions reach $0.45/common unit. WES will return virtually all the proceeds (about $350 million) to Anadarko, which will use the money to repay a portion of Anadarko’s recent $2.2 billion borrowing from, surprise, the underwriters.

Anadarko first filed with the SEC for this IPO in April 2007, and it’s taken this long to get to the IPO. The company reported good results for the first quarter of 2008, and, according to Forbes, Moody’s recently raised its outlook to ’stable’ from ‘negative’ on APC’s ‘Baa3′ senior unsecured long-term debt. Including the $2.2 billion, APC’s total long-term debt and liabilities were about $26.6 billion at the end of the first quarter.

Spinning off midstream assets is nothing new for E&P companies. El Paso (NYSE: EP) hived off El Paso Pipeline Partners L.P. (NYSE: EPB) in November 2007 for about $540 million and EPB’s stock price has risen about 11% since then. Anadarko and Western Gas Partners, LP should be happy with similar performance — not great, but good enough to keep the debt rating companies happy.

Oddly enough, Carl Icahn was a huge owner of Anadarko as of the last filing dates.

You can join our open email distribution list to keep up with other mergers, IPO’s, spin-offs, and other specialty financings.

Paul Ausick
May 9, 2008

Posted on: May 9, 2008 – 8:45 am in IPOs, Oil & Gas, , , ,

El Paso Gasses Estimates, But Help is on the Way (EP, CHK, GS)

El Paso Corporation (NYSE:EP) has reported earnings of $0.29 EPS on net income of $219 million and revenue of $1.269 billion for the first quarter of 2008. Analysts were expecting $0.30 EPS and revenue of $1.35 billion.

The company’s president and CEO Doug Foshee provided an upbeat projection for the rest of the year, saying that EP expects "sharply higher earnings than our $1.00 to $1.10 earnings guidance for 2008 as our hedging strategy has enabled us to participate in improved natural gas and oil prices."  First Call has estimates at $1.19 for the year.

A week ago, Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK) reported a loss of $129 million or $0.29 EPS, primarily due to a non-performing hedging loss of $704 million. Chesapeake’s stock has risen more than 10% since then, mostly on the strength of a year-over-year production increase of 31%. El Paso improved production by about 8% y-o-y. In pre-market trading this morning, El Paso shares are up 1% at $18.50, and Chesapeake is up about 0.6% at $56.50.

The price movements have everything to do with the price of natural gas. EP’s average realized price for the first quarter was $7.57/Mcf, about $1.50/Mcf less than CHK’s average realized price of $9.05/Mcf. The higher prices partially reflect a drop in U.S. imports of LNG. In fact, according to Platt’s, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is predicting that U.S. natural gas storage inventories will not be full by the end of the summer. The U.S. Energy Information Agency has pegged first quarter 2008 LNG imports at just 860 MMcf/d, about half the agency’s projected monthly average for the year.

GS says that LNG imports won’t increase in the U.S. until NYMEX gas prices rise to equal or surpass international price levels. Competition with Asia and Europe for LNG cargoes will drive spot prices to new highs. If GS is correct, U.S. natural gas prices will need to nearly double to reach the current level of LNG spot prices. EP and CHK and other gas producers can only benefit.

Paul Ausick
May 8, 2008

Posted on: May 8, 2008 – 8:13 am in Earnings, Oil & Gas, , ,

Cramer Takes His Gas To El Paso & Nabors (EP, NBR)

In light of EARTH DAY, Jim Cramer came on MAD MONEY on CNBC with a natural gas pick tonight.  His pick tonight is El Paso Corp. (NYSE: EP) which is the largest domestic natural gas pipeline with some 42,000 miles of pipeline.  At under $18.00 per share, Cramer noted that this is a catch-up play.  It was only up 3% this year and he thinks the stock should be worth $22.00.  He also likes its expansion as the cheapest natural gas play out there and with recent insider buying in the stock.

Shares of El Paso closed up marginally today at $17.78, and shares traded up almost 3% to $18.28 after the Cramer tout.  Its 52-week trading range is $14.80 to $18.56.

Cramer also came on and touted Nabors Industries Ltd. (NYSE: NBR) tonight as one of the largest land driller for natural gas.  In fact, he even brought on the CEO, Gene Isenberg for a brief interview.  They were talking about how oil was so high compared to natural gas for so long.  As far as a developing rig shortage, Isenberg says any of the idle rigs will be used in the U.S. or internationally.  The company also talked about its shales that are available in the U.S. and Canada.  As far as higher potential taxes, he said that producers will have to be realistic and they will have to drill if it is economical.  NBR closed at $37.90, right at the top of its prior $23.61 to $38.00 52-week trading range (but intraday high today was $38.61).

Jon C. Ogg
April 22, 2008

Jon Ogg is a producer of and editor for both the Special Situations newsletter and the "10 Stocks Under $10" weekly newsletter for 247WallSt.com; he can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: April 22, 2008 – 5:22 pm in Cramer, Oil & Gas, ,

The $200 Oil Call… Outrageous or Circumspect? (GS, EP, UPL, FST, EAC, KWK)

If you thought oil prices of today are high with oil prices north of $105/barrel, imagine what a $120/barrel, or $150/barrel, or even $200/barrel oil would do.

A firm called United Energy now has a $120 target near-term for oil, and recently and at the end of February we saw Deutsche Bank ponder the thought of a $150/barrel price for oil.  Now we have Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) joining the fray with a call that at least ponders (not predicting) prices far north of its last $135 super-spike call that had been raised from $100/barrel.  Goldman Sachs isn’t really predicting $200 oil, but they are discussing the possibility of such.  One thing it has done is raised the lower-end floor of its 2008 to 2012 band to $60.00 per barrel.  It even noted that average selling prices were going to remain high: 

  • Average $95/barrel in 2008,
  • Average $105/barrel in 2009,
  • and Average $110/barrel in 2010.

Keep in mind this call was very much of a hedged call today that is more of a possibility and conceptual call, so don’t go out thinking that this was a do or die prediction.  Goldman Sachs did issue some favorite stocks in the oil patch as well, and it is keeping its predictions high for the sector and the commodities in there as well.  This would allow for more of these to oils to hike their dividends.  but we would note that less than a month ago we saw Goldman Sachs cut its coal targets.

It added Ultra Petroleum (NYSE: UPL) and Encore Acquisition (NYSE: EAC) to its America’s Buy List, but it simultaneously removed Forest Oil (NYSE: FST) and Quicksilver Resources (NYSE: KWK) from the list with neutral ratings.  Most refiner estimates were lowered as a result and is neutral on integrated oils in hopes of a pullback. It still has an attractive coverage view for these.  El Paso (NYSE: EP) was also raised to Buy in the coverage today to the Americas Buy List.

With oil north of $105 today, T. Boone Pickens is feeling major pain IF he is still short like he recently noted.  He’s been right the whole way up calling for $80 before he’s 80 and then calling for $100 in different calls in 2007.  Pleas keep in mind that Goldman Sachs has been making more positive calls in the group since mid to late-February so considering all of these as fresh calls is not really the case.  But a mere notion of $200/barrel is something that has many traders talking, and traders are using technical patterns and fear more and more right now.

Traders have been using oil and gold to hide out in to avoid the weakness in the U.S. Dollar.  If we see prices go that high, the United States will have to change the name of the currency to the US Peso.  We’ve already seen how OPEC is blaming the U.S. for current prices.  This would do wonders for Jim Cramer’s latest natural gas pick.

True die hard contrarians would be clamoring for this as an opportunity to sell, but being vocal about that right now would be no different than painting targets on their bodies head to toe.  In fact, finding any that are calling for the party to be over in oil is rather difficult.

Jon C. Ogg
March 7, 2008

Posted on: March 7, 2008 – 4:58 pm in Analyst Calls, Oil & Gas, , , , , ,

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (A, BBBY, BBY, DTV, ECL, EP, IBM, NTAP, LRCX, MOT, CRM)

These are not the only impact analyst calls affecting stocks this morning, but these are the ones that 247WallSt.com is focusing on:

  • Agilent (A) raised to Buy at Banc of America.
  • Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) raised to Neutral from Underweight at JPMorgan.
  • Best Buy (BBY) downgraded to Underperform from Outperform at Bear Stearns.
  • DIRECTV (DTV) raised to Overweight from Equal-Weight at Lehman.
  • Ecolab (ECL) raised to Buy from Hold at Citigroup.
  • El Paso (EP) raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Wachovia.
  • IBM (IBM) and Network Appliance (NTAP) both downgraded to Neutral at UBS; shares indicated down 0.5%.
  • Lam Research (LRCX) raised to Overweight from Equal-Weight at Lehman.
  • Motorola (MOT) downgraded to Sector Perform at RBC Capital Markets.
  • Salesforce.com (CRM) raised to Buy at UBS; but CRM downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman Sachs; shares indicated down almost 3%.

Jon C. Ogg
January 7, 2008

Posted on: January 7, 2008 – 7:57 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , , ,

Pre-Market Stock News (November 6, 2007)

  • Archer-Daniels Midland (ADM) $0.71 vs. $0.59 est.
  • Asset Acceptance Corp. (AACC) -$0.05 EPS vs -$0.05 est.
  • Beazer (BZH) cutting 1/4 workers and suspends dividend; sees new order down 50%.
  • Church & Dwight (CHD) $0.69 EPS vs. $0.589 est.; sees 2007 EPS $2.42-2.44 vs. $2.36 consensus.
  • Cooper Tire (CTB) $0.28 EPS vs $0.30 est.
  • El Paso (EP) $0.22 EPS vs $0.23 est.
  • Emerson (EMR) $0.78 EPS vs $0.75 est.
  • Environmental Tectonics’ (ETC) Aeromedical division won two new contract awards in Middle-East worth a total of $20 million.
  • Fuel-Tech (FTEK) $0.04 EPS vs. $0.06 est.; sees 2007 revenues $76-79 million vs. $79.7 million est.
  • Gerdau AmeriSteel (GNA) $0.40 EPS vs $0.42 est.
  • Google (GOOG) up $25 on analyst Sanford Bernstein raised target to $850.
  • International Securities Exchange (ISE) $0.62 EPS vs $0.53 est.
  • Kellwood (KWD) sets 2008 targets of $1.55 billion revenue from operations and sees $1.50 EPS.
  • K-Swiss (KSWS) $0.36 EPS vs $0.34 est.
  • Momenta Pharma (MNTA) announced FDA letter received says its M-Enoxaparin ANDA is NOT Approvable in current form.
  • Nortel Networks (NT) $0.05 EPS after charges vs. $0.11 est.; Revenues $2.71 Billion vs. $2.77 Billion est.
  • PetroQuest (PQ) $0.16 EPS vs. $0.14 est.
  • PowerSecure $0.15 EPS vs. $0.17 est.
  • QLogic (QLGC) announced a $200 million share buyback plan.
  • Sun Micro (JAVA) up 1.5% after earnings, despite lackluster report.
  • TheStreet.com (TSCM) $0.13 EPS vs $0.12 est.; Revenues $16.1 million vs. $16.3M est.
  • Urban Outfitters (URBN) sees revenues for Q3 at $379.3 million versus $374.5 million est.; s-s-s +8% for the quarter.
  • Valero (VLO) $1.40 EPS vs $1.35 est., but had lowered preliminary numbers.
  • Watson Pharma (WPI) $0.33 EPs vs $0.30 est.

Jon C. Ogg
November 6, 2007

Posted on: November 6, 2007 – 8:25 am in Pre-Market Activity, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Goldman Sachs Major Oil Changes (APA, FST, KWK, KGS, EP, XOM, FTO, HES, MUR, OXY, CVX)

Goldman Sachs this morning made some significant "Super-Spike" era calls where it said oil could reach $135 per barrel and noted up to $4.50 per gallon of gasoline at the pump for you and me, although its actual base targets are not at that level.  It has hiked integrated oil earnings estimates and maintaining "Attractive Ratings" on the sector to include exploration and production.  2008 and 2009 estimates have been raised for oil services and deepwater drillers, and made the following price base price assumptions for oil per barrel and natural gas ($/MMBtu):

  • 2008 $80.00/$8.50
  • 2009 $90.00/$10.00
  • 2010 $80.00/$8.50
  • 2011 $75.00/$7.50

Oil Services estimates raised 6% in 2008 and 16% 2009.  Estimates unchanged for offshore drillers due to high contract coverage in deepwater markets and increasing uncontracted supply in the shallow water market.  Increased price targets by 7% on average for oil service stocks and by 5% on average for deepwater levered drillers.

Even after Apache Corp. (NYSE:APA) was raised to Buy last week, Goldman Sachs is adding it to the CONVICTION BUY LIST, replaces Forest Oil Corp. (NYSE:FST) on the list.

Quicksilver Resources (NYSE:KWK) continued as Buy/Attractive as performed well since announcing asset sales last week.

QuickSilver Gas Services L.P. (KGS) started as Buy with a $27 target over 12 months.

Other estimates increased (partial list): El Paso (EP), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Frontier Oil (FTO), Hess (HES), Marathon Oil (MRO), Murphy Oil (MUR), Newfield Exploration (NFX), Occidental Petroleum (OXY), Petro-Canada (PCZ), Suncor Energy (SU), Sunoco (SUN), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ), Chevron (CVX), Apache (APA).

Jon C. Ogg
September 17, 2007

Posted on: September 17, 2007 – 8:05 am in Analyst Calls, Oil & Gas, , , , , , , , , , ,

While You Were On Holiday…Here’s What You Missed

Last week was a light volume trading week, but the markets were open and they didn’t wait for the holiday crowd to come back.   Here is a snippet of some of the major moves of the last week:

Could Boston Scientific(NYSE:BSX) and J&J (NYSE:JNJ) get back on the coated stent  favor?
Media Digest from September 3….
August 30: Upgrades and Downgrades.
August 29: Moody’s actually defended Wall Street bulge bracket firms over leveraged debt exposure.
August 28: Full Upgrades and Downgrades.
Full Pre-Market Notes
August 27: Full Upgrades & Downgrades.
Full Pre-Market Notes
If Seagate Won’t Sell, Why Not Buy Western Digital? (STX, WDC, KOMG)
Crocs ((NASDAQ:CROX) Intro’s New Clothing Line.…and stock hit new highs.
Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) Makes It Thru Earnings……How Much Stock Will It Buy Back Once It Resumes Buying Stock?
American Water Works (NYSE:AWK)…. Back as a US IPO.
El Paso (NYSE:EP) files for an IPO for one of its MLP’s.
Ariad (NASDAQ:ARIA) gets a Business Week bump.
Bush decides mortgages may get a bailout, although even after a rally not much was determined.
Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) may hit into social networking more.  They need to, because Yahoo! Finance is showing some real drop off in its numbers.
52 WEEK LOWS: August 30….. August 29….. August 28…..
August 27…..
NASDAQ Short Interest came out (AUGUST 2007)

Jon C. Ogg
September 4, 2007

Posted on: September 4, 2007 – 6:53 am in Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , ,

IPO FILING: El Paso Pipeline Partners, L.P. (EP, EPB, BSR)

After the close Friday, while no one was there to see it, we had a fairly interesting spin-off announcement.  El Paso Corp. (NYSE:EP) filed with the SEC to make its El Paso Pipeline Partners, L.P. a seperate public company.  This is another one of the famed MLP spin-offs that have been so popular over the last few years with oil companies and investors.

MLP operators and recent spin-offs have seen a bit of a breather and selling in the recent weeks, but there are still many such entities out there that can be and will likely be unlocked in the near future.  You can track the overall performance of the group by looking at a key ETF that has been public a very short time: BEAR STEARNS ALERIAN ETF (NYSE:BSR), which is down about 10% from its post-launch highs. The company has filed up to $603,750,000 for registration purposes of 25 million units and the underlying El Paso Corp. has a current market cap of $11.1 Billion.  So this does offer some value to be unlocked, but on the surface it may only be 5%.  This will have the proposed ticker of "EPB" on the NYSE.

Here are the underwiters on the filing: Lehman Brothers, Citi, Goldman Sachs & Co., UBS Investment Bank, and Tudor Pickering.  We will follow up with what percentages go where in this company versus the underlying MLP and ownership percentages in a future story ahead of the actual IPO.  YOU CAN SEE A SPECIAL "ABOUT US COPY" FROM THE PROSPECTUS ON PAGE TWO HERE BELOW IF YOU WISH.

Jon C. Ogg
September 1, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he produces 24/7 Wall St. LLC’s Special Situation Investing Newsletter and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

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Posted on: September 1, 2007 – 3:42 pm in ETF, IPOs, Oil & Gas, , , , ,