Wednesday July 21, 2010
by Mark Skousen, editor Forecasts & Strategies
Despite economic and stock market uncertainty, two of our dividend-paying energy-related stocks keep on rising.
We remain bullish on the outlooks for
Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (
EPD) and
Enerplus Resources (
ERF).
Meanwhile, one of our stocks that is bucking the downward trend and is hitting new highs: Enterprise Products Partners L.P., our Houston-based pipeline company.
It provides a range of services to producers and consumers of natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), crude oil, refined products, and petrochemicals in the continental United States, Canada and Gulf of Mexico.
The sudden death of founder Dan Duncan has not kept the stock from rising. Analysts expect an increase in sales of 29.20% this year and earnings growth of 20.50%.
Cash flow is ample enough to pay the dividend. Enterprise has a rising-dividend policy, and recently increased its quarterly cash distribution to $0.575 per share.
This master limited partnership has raised distributions for more than a decade, and is a member of the dividend achievers index. The units yield 6.20%. We’re up 23% so far this year.
Another energy investment that has held up well is Enerplus Resources, Canada’s first royalty oil & gas trust. Production is down from its 2008 high, when oil prices were at record levels, but coming back.
In addition to paying out a generous 9.3% annual distribution yield, Enerplus during the past couple of years has assembled some very nice growth opportunities in oil sands and shale, as well as conventional oil & gas reserves.
Learn more about this financial newsletter at Mark Skousen's Forecasts & Strategies.
