On Monday, EQM Midstream Partners, LP (EQM) announced yet another cost increase and delay to its targeted in-service date for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, or MVP.  The MVP project is by far the firm's most important growth opportunity, representing over two-thirds of EQM's current backlog and accounting for about 15% of firm-wide EBITDA upon completion. The successful [...]

In business for more than 100 years, Southern Company (SO) is a major regulated utility involved in selling electricity and distributing natural gas, primarily across the Southeastern U.S. The firm's eight vertically integrated electric and gas utilities serve customers across Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi.  Southern Company’s mix of business and service territories significantly changed [...]

Omnicom (OMC) was formed in 1986 by the merger of three large advertising conglomerates. Today the firm is the world's second largest provider of advertising and marketing communication services to over 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries.  As a full-service agency, Omnicom provides numerous services, including designing ad campaigns, making the actual ads, determining [...]

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (BIP) is one of the fastest growing and most diversified utilities in the world. In fact, the limited partnership (a corporate structure similar to that of a Master Limited Partnership) owns dozens of infrastructure assets located across five continents. Some examples of the partnership's assets include electrical transmission lines, railroads, toll [...]

Enbridge (ENB) investors have had a rough few years, with shares of North America's largest pipeline operator losing more than 20% since early 2015, including dividends. Unfortunately, investors received more bad news earlier this month. On June 3, the Minnesota Court of Appeals overturned approval for an important part of the firm's Line 3 Replacement Project, which [...]

Phillips 66 (PSX) shares are down about 30% since their mid-2018 high. As a result, the stock's dividend yield now exceeds 4%, the highest level since Phillips 66 was spun off from ConocoPhillips (COP) in 2012.  Let's take a closer look at why the market has become pessimistic about Phillips 66 and assess why the [...]

Shares of Lowe's (LOW) have slumped more than 15% since the home improvement retailer released earnings on May 22, including the stock's worst-ever single-day loss of 12%. The market is notorious for overreacting to short-term results, even for quality dividend kings such as Lowe's. However, the world of retail is also evolving as e-commerce and trade wars [...]

Longtime tobacco investors know a thing or two about the challenges this industry can face. From regulatory pressures to costly settlement agreements, over the years income investors have had to stomach bouts of severe volatility. In fact, Altria's (MO) share price was nearly cut in half in the early 1990s when the Supreme Court ruled [...]

In March 2019, I published a note reviewing Tanger's dividend safety. In my concluding remarks, I had stated the firm's dividend still looked safe, but investors needed to watch the performance of Tanger's tenants (emphasis added): Tanger's operating results have significantly deteriorated in recent years, driven largely by its exposure to troubled apparel retailers. While Tanger's [...]

Opioids are a class of drug that includes prescription pain relievers such as OxyContin and Vicodin, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl (similar to morphine but much more potent), and illegal drug heroin.  In 2017 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) declared a public health emergency to address the national opioid crisis. The HHS believes [...]

News broke last night that the U.S. will impose a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports beginning on June 10 unless Mexico agrees to do more to address illegal immigration problems.  The tariff will increase 5% each month, reaching a maximum of 25% in October. Trump tweeted the 25% level would hold there "until Mexico [...]

Amgen (AMGN) was founded in 1980 and is one of the world's leading biotechnology companies with operations in more than 100 countries. The business develops and manufactures treatments for oncology/hematology, cardiovascular, inflammation, bone health, nephrology, and neurological diseases.  About 77% of the firm's sales are derived from the U.S., and Amgen's product portfolio is concentrated [...]

Shares of Qualcomm (QCOM) fell as low as $49 earlier this year as investors fretted over the significant legal risks the company's core licensing business faced. Simply put, the firm was accused by Apple and others of abusing its monopolistic position in wireless chips and charging excessive royalty rates. Investors received good news in April [...]

Founded in 1898, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) procures, transports, and processes corn, oilseeds, wheat, and other commodities which are turned into products for food, beverage, animal feed, chemical, and energy uses around the world.  The firm's end products include vegetable oil, protein meal, flour, corn sweeteners, starch, ethanol, and many other food and feed ingredients.  [...]

Since 1997, Kinder Morgan (KMI) has spent more than $60 billion building one of North America's largest midstream infrastructures, providing gathering, storage, transport, and processing services to the oil & gas industry. Kinder Morgan's immense footprint (84,000 miles of pipelines and over 150 distribution and storage terminals) means the company is vertically integrated into almost [...]