Notes From All Over --- The Morning Edition -- August 6, 2020

Big story of the month:DAPL --

• court ruling buys time for DAPL -- Bloomberg;
  
• US Court of Appeals vacates order to shut down DAPL -- KXNET;

The market.

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Hopin' and dreamin', GE, link here.

• some years ago, hedge fund investor makes huge bet on GE
• buys in at $25/share
• this week, sells half its holdings for $6/share

Companies:

• WMB: breaks out after strong earnings.
• BP oil business to shrink dramatically; renewables to increase; 
• Shell shrinks Appalachi portfolio;Keystone XL: Biden facing union pressure; this is not rocket science;
• SRE earning:
• transcript, SeekingAlpha;
  
• slide deck, SeekingAlpha;
• seeking permit, see below;
  

SRE:

• Sempra Energy says it is still working with the Mexican government to obtain a 20-year export permit for the first phase of its proposed Energía Costa Azul liquefied natural gas export project in Mexico's Baja California.
• the company, which made the statement in its Q2 earnings report, has said it plans to make a final investment decision before the end of 2020 to build the plant.
• Sempra also says it expects full commercial operations at phase 1 of its Cameron LNG export facility in Louisiana to start in the coming days, after Train 3 reached "substantial completion" at the end of July.
• lso, the company's board approves a $2B stock repurchase plan.
• Sempra reported better than forecast Q2 earnings and a 13.5% Y/Y increase in revenues to $2.53B.

MDU, earnings, SeekingAlpha:

• MDU Resources (NYSE:MDU) reported Q2 revenue increase of 4.6% Y/Y to $1.36B, and earnings of $99.7M, an increase of 61% Y/Y.
• construction materials business revenues were $621.1M (+4.2% Y/Y) and backlog of work at June 30 was $875M; Construction services business revenue was $497.2M (+6.9% Y/Y) and backlog of work at June 30 was $1.31B.
• the electric and natural gas utility earned $11.2M vs. $1.2M in 2Q19, benefiting from lower operating costs, higher investment returns and the absence of a write-down on a non-utility investment recorded, and pipeline business earned $9M (+26.7% Y/Y).
• Q2 Operating margin expanded by 268 bps to 10.2%.
• Q2 EBITDA from continuing operations was $219.8M (+35.8% Y/Y), and margin improved by 370 bps to 16.1%.
• net cash provided by operating activities YTD was $261.4M, compared to cash used $22.9M a year ago.
• FY20 Guidance, raised: EPS of $1.65 to $1.85 (prior $1.50 to $1.70) vs. $1.60 consensus. Construction services revenues in the range of $1.9B to $2.1B (prior $1.85B to $2.05B) with margins comparable to 2019 and construction materials revenues in the range of $2.2B to $2.4B (prior $2.1B to $2.3B) with margins slightly higher than 2019.