High-Yield Oil And Gas Pipeline Stocks

 | Mar 14, 2013 06:12AM ET

Stocks from the basic material sector could complement your portfolio and hedge it against strong commodity price increases. One industry from the basic material sector with the highest yielding stocks is the oil and gas pipeline industry.

39 companies are linked to the industry of which 37 pay dividends. Combined they have a total market capitalization of USD 800 billion. Nearly 60 percent of the industry players have a yield over 5 percent and some have a really great dividend history. Thanks to the share gas boom it’s now possible that more pipeline infrastructure is needed. The average industry yield amounts to 4.72% and the P/E ratio is 33.40.

You should have seen some interesting pipeline companies on my blog in the past. Normally I am no fan of real estate companies because of the huge amounts of money they need for growing. But pipeline operators look different. They pay huge dividends and have the ability to grow dividends year over year. Their business model works but I don’t know how long. Pipeline operators are better than real estate stocks but it could be possible that the time brings some changes, especially when the energy demand and supply is changing.

Oil and gas pipeline stocks are real asset companies and they have a huge leverage on their balance sheet. The average industry long-term debt to equity ratio is over 123 percent but as long as revenue and cash flow streams are stable, this figure is still healthy.

Seventeen stocks fulfilled these criteria of which eight have a current buy or better recommendation.

Boardwalk Pipeline Partner (BWP) has a market capitalization of $6.38 billion. The company employs 1,200 people, generates revenue of $1.185 billion and has a net income of $306.00 million. The firm’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $726.10 million. The EBITDA margin is 61.27 percent (the operating margin is 39.98 percent and the net profit margin 25.82 percent).

Financial Analysis: The total debt represents 45.01 percent of the company’s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 91.28 percent. Due to the financial situation, a return on equity of 7.43 percent was realized. Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of $1.28. Last fiscal year, the company paid $2.13 in the form of dividends to shareholders.

Market Valuation: Here are the price ratios of the company: The P/E ratio is 21.67, the P/S ratio is 5.38 and the P/B ratio is finally 1.68. The dividend yield amounts to 7.70 percent and the beta ratio has a value of 0.24.