Idle Rambling On Dividends In The Energy Sector -- October 28, 2015

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I generally don't follow the energy market very closely when it's mostly "bad news." I check in on it for specific reasons and/or if I plan to buy or sell something. But I pretty much ignore the energy market when it turns bearish.

Several weeks ago I started checking the daily dividend announcements compiled by The Wall Street Journal. I was surprised. For all the gloom and doom, certain sub-sectors in the energy sector were actually increasing dividends, and some quite nicely. Today is an example.

Dividend increases for both ETE and ETP were noted. ETE/ETP is a special case perhaps with the recent acquisition of Williams Companies (I don't know where that merger stands, approved, not approved, holding pattern, whatever) but over the past few weeks, there were many other energy companies increasing their dividends. A lot of them were, it seemed, involved in the movement of oil and natural gas, and/or refining crude oil, not necessarily involved in exploration and/or producing.

Just a random note for the archives. And to keep me in a happy mood.

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Flashback

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions or financial decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. 
When I do the "earnings stuff" I always do it quickly and probably make many errors. Forecasts come from multiple sources and change frequently.  
If this is important to you, go to the source, probably someone like Donald Trump or Paul Krugman for better investment advice.

This from the earnings post 4Q14 (the number in parentheses was the EPS forecast)

• TSO ($0.31):  $1.13 per share. Earnings, adjusted to account for discontinued operations and non-recurring costs, came to $1.46 per share; increased its quarterly dividend by 40% to 42.5 cents a share.
   
• VLO ($1.32):  beats by $0.51, reports revs in-line : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $1.83 per share, $0.51 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $1.32; revenues fell 19.1% year/year to $27.86 bln vs the $27.64 bln consensus. 

Fast forward to 3Q15 (this week):

• TSO ($5.32): Oct 28 -- will report after market close today
  VLO ($2.60):   Valero earnings rise 40% on cheap crude oil; profit rises 30 percent; tops forecast

The San Antonio-based company said it had profit of $2.79 per share.

The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $2.60 per share.