Railroad Shares Surge -- January 22, 2015

President Obama, Eric Holder say "never mind." Closes case on Ferguson policeman; no federal charges. 

Active rigs:

	1/22/2015	01/22/2014	01/22/2013	01/22/2012	01/22/2011
Active Rigs	160	187	188	203	165

RBN Energy: the NGL players in the Eagle Ford and Permian -- a great post. A must-read. These articles get archived to subscribers only. 

The prolific, liquids-rich Permian Basin and Eagle Ford plays have attracted more than a dozen midstream companies interested in meeting the growing need for natural gas processing plants, fractionators and natural gas liquids pipelines. Some of the larger players have assembled broad-based portfolios of assets, while others have focused on more stand-alone NGL pipeline or gas processing investments. Today we begin wrapping up our series on NGL-related assets in two of the nation’s most important shale plays.

NGL production in the Permian and Eagle Ford has been rising even more quickly than predicted a year or two ago. As we said in Episode 1 of our series, that rapid growth has put renewed pressure on midstream companies to increase the gas processing and NGL take-away capacity from the two prolific “triple-plays”— favored by producers for their ability to generate large volumes of crude oil, gas and NGLs. In the next four episodes, we considered the NGL-related assets of some of the larger players.

In Episode 2, we reviewed Enterprise Products Partners’ (EPD) infrastructure in the Permian, and in Episode 3 we discussed EPD’s assets in the Eagle Ford and DCP Midstream’s assets in the Permian and the Eagle Ford. In Episode 4, we looked at Energy Transfer, and in Episode 5 we considered Targa Resources, which is in the process of acquiring Atlas Pipeline. This time, in our next-to-last episode of the series, we look at nine other companies that own NGL-related assets in the two plays.

****************************************

For Investors Only

See disclaimer. 

Reporting today:

• Canadian Pacific Railway (CP.TO), expectation $2.56: reports record 4Q14 operating ratio of 60% and earning per share of $2.63; shares climb $6; Revenues in the fourth quarter climbed 10 percent to an all-time high $1.76 billion. Net income rose to a record $451 million, or $2.63 per diluted share. Adjusted earnings in the fourth-quarter jumped to $460 million, or $2.68 per share, from $338 million, or $1.91 per share, in the fourth quarter 2013.
• Union Pacific (UNP), expectation $1.51: No. 1 U.S. railroad Union Pacific Corp on Thursday reported a 22 percent jump in quarterly profit that beat analyst estimates, driven by rising freight volumes and higher revenue from increased freight rates.
  The Omaha, Nebraska-based company reported a net profit for the fourth quarter of $1.43 billion, up 22 percent from $1.17 billion a year earlier.
  It earned $1.61 a share in the quarter, a 27 percent increase over the $1.27 a share it earned in the fourth quarter of 2013. Shares surge over $4.
• Verizon (VZ) expectation, 73 cents; meets expectations but posts loss on pension;
  Verizon shares dropped slightly after the company reported a net loss in its fourth-quarter earnings, attributed to employee pensions and benefit costs. However, revenues met expectations thanks to increased wireless and broadband connections.
  The company reported earnings per share of 71 cents, matching the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research. Verizon also reported $33.2 billion in revenue, a 6.8% increase from last year, above expectations of $32.5 billion.
  Verizon reported a net loss for the fourth-quarter of $2.15 billion after adjustments for pension and other post-employment benefits liabilities, early retirement of debt and other costs.
• SBUX, expectation 80 cents; after market close;