For Investors Only -- HAL, WMB, OKE -- Idle Rambling, Market In General -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Some odds and ends while I have some free time.

HAL: 4Q11 earnings up 50%. Earnings jump said to be due to boom in American shale.

I always find it interesting what I don't hear talked about on CNBC.

OKE: as low at $60 this past year; now up to $84. The chart is quite fascinating -- check out the one-year view.

OKE: recently announced a healthy increase in its quarterly dividend.

OKE increased the quarterly dividend to 61 cents per share of common stock from 56 cents per share, a 5-cent-per-share, or 9-percent, increase, effective for the fourth quarter 2011, payable Feb. 14, 2012, to shareholders of record at the close of business Jan. 31, 2012.  "This latest dividend increase is higher than the guidance increase of 4 cents per share that we provided in September 2011 and reflects the continued strong performance in our ONEOK Partners segment, which has resulted in increased distributions to ONEOK from the partnership ... 

WMB:  the one-year view is not as striking as that of ONEOK but one could have bought WMB as low as $22 this past year; it's now around $28. WMB is not as striking because Williams split up the company: oil exploration, and pipeline and I believe both companies will pay a dividend (but I don't know).  It would be interesting if WMB hits its old high despite splitting off its exploration and production segment.

WMB: the most recently announced quarterly dividend increase was not much, but the dividend is now double from what it was a year ago. In addition, WMB says it will increase its dividend every quarter going forward. That press release is really bullish.

The board of directors has approved a regular dividend of $0.25875 on the company’s common stock, payable March 26, 2012, to holders of record at the close of business on March 9.


The first-quarter 2012 dividend is more than double the $0.125 per share the company paid to shareholders a year ago. The most recent quarterly dividend the company paid was $0.25 in December 2011.

Williams plans to increase its dividend more frequently – with increases every quarter. As a result, the company increased its full-year dividend forecast to $1.09 per share for 2012. That is 41 percent higher than the full-year dividend Williams paid in 2011. The company’s previous 2012 dividend forecast was $1.03 per share.

Moving to quarterly increases is consistent with the expected growing cash distributions Williams is receiving from its significant ownership interest in Williams Partners L.P. . Strong business fundamentals and growth outlook within Williams Partners’ businesses are driving the expectation of continued strong distribution growth. 

Be advised of the disclaimer for this blog. This is not an investment site. I just enjoy blogging and sharing information easily found on the internet.  As noted several times, if I post something that doesn't look right, it may be a typographical error; check it out; let me know.



COP: I have not seen anything new regarding the breakup of COP (upstream from downstream). I believe this is to conclude in 2Q12. Here's an old (last summer) CNNMoney/Fortune essay on the breakup.

The announcement last month that ConocoPhillips plans to break up into two separately traded companies took Wall Street by surprise, raising uncomfortable questions as to Big Oil's raison d'etre.

....other companies, namely BP and ExxonMobil, could soon find themselves under pressure from their shareholders to follow suit, forever changing the energy landscape.

Up until now, it was widely accepted that being bigger was the key to being a better oil company. That view was taken to its logical extreme in the late 1990s when the "Super Major" oil company was born. In the United States, Conoco merged with Phillips, Chevron merged with Texaco and Exxon merged with Mobil. In Europe, BP snapped up U.S. oil companies Amoco and Arco while France's Total acquired Belgium's Petrofina and fellow French oil company Elf Aquitaine. Only Royal Dutch Shell avoided the merger mania.

The reason for the mergers was clear -- oil prices had collapsed. In the late 1990s, oil traded down as low as $10 a barrel due to a myriad of events -- how soon I forget...

Others may want to confirm, but WTI spot is around $94; North Dakota Sweet is around $75 (SemCrude), but Murphy shows ND Sweet closer to $85. It sure will be nice when the bottleneck at Cushing is resolved. Links to various sites like SemCrude and Murphy can be found at my Data Links page.  When you get there, scroll down just a bit to "oil prices."

I see the price of oil is up about a buck in futures, and the Euro is rising against the dollar -- which probably explains the move in oil. Even CNBC talking head was surprised by the Euro move, coming as it does with no firm announcement from Europe regarding the Euro.