We got to most of the questions during this session, but there were a few that required an extended answer, or a bit more research. Of the remaining questions, there were about twice as many specific to MLPs versus those that pertained to conventional energy sector corporations. Below I will address most of the remaining MLP questions from the chat. For questions that weren’t MLP-specific, see this week’s issue of The Energy Letter.
Q: Are the general partner units always the best to hold for long term gains and MLP units for current income?This question really piqued my interest. Intuitively, I felt like it was probably true, but I didn’t want to answer the question until I could dig into it a bit more. I thought it would be interesting to have a look at the historical performance of a few publicly-traded general partners versus their limited partner to find out if that hypothesis is supported.
Best Income Stocks To Watch Right Now: Westpac Banking Corp (WBK)
Westpac Banking Corporation (Westpac), incorporated on August 23, 2002, is a banking organization. Westpac provides a range of banking and financial services, including retail, business and institutional banking, and wealth management services. It operates through three divisions: Australian Financial Services (AFS), Westpac Institutional Bank (WIB) and Westpac New Zealand. AFS encompasses Westpac�� retail and business banking operations in Australia, and includes the businesses of Westpac Retail & Business Banking, St.George Banking Group and BT Financial Group Australia (BFTG). Westpac RBB is responsible for sales and service for Westpac�� consumer, small-to-medium enterprise customers and commercial customers in Australia under the Westpac brands. St.George is responsible for sales, and service for its consumer, business and corporate customers in Australia under the St.George, BankSA, Bank of Melbourne and RAMS brands. BTFG is Westpac�� Australian wealth management division. WIB delivers a range of financial services to commercial, corporate, institutional and government customers with connections to Australia and New Zealand. Westpac New Zealand is responsible for the sales and service of banking, wealth and insurance products for consumers, business and institutional customers in New Zealand. In January 2014, the Company completed the acquisition of Lloyds Banking Group Plc�� Australian asset finance business, Capital Finance Australia Limited, and its Australian corporate loan portfolio, BOS International (Australia) Ltd.
Westpac RBB
Westpac RBB�� activities are conducted through its network of branches and business banking centers, home finance managers (HFMs) and specialized consumer and business relationship managers, with the support of cash flow, financial markets and wealth specialists, customer service centers, automated teller machines (ATMs) and Internet channels.
St.George
Consumer activities are conducted through a networ! k of branches, third party distributors, call centers, automated teller machines (ATMs), electronic funds transfer point-of-sale (EFTPOS) terminals and Internet banking services. Business and corporate customers are provided with a range of banking and financial products and services, including specialist advice for cash flow finance, trade finance, automotive and equipment finance, property finance, transaction banking and treasury services. Sales and service activities for business and corporate customers are conducted by relationship managers through business banking centers, Internet and customer service centre channels.
BTFG
BTFG�� funds management operations include the manufacturing and distribution of investment, superannuation and retirement products; investment platforms, such as Wrap and Master Trusts, and private banking and financial planning. Its Insurance solutions cover the manufacturing and distribution of life, general and lenders mortgage insurance. BTFG�� brands include Advance Asset Management, Ascalon, Asgard, BT, BT Investment Management (64.5% owned by Westpac), BT Select, Licensee Select, Magnitude, Securitor and the advice, private banking and insurance operations of Bank of Melbourne, BankSA, St.George and Westpac.
Westpac Institutional Bank (WIB)
WIB operates through industry relationship and specialist product teams, with knowledge in transactional banking, financial and debt capital markets, specialised capital, margin lending, broking and alternative investment solutions. Customers are supported through branches and subsidiaries located in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, United Kingdom and Asia.
Westpac New Zealand
Westpac conducts its New Zealand banking business through two banks in New Zealand; Westpac New Zealand
Limited, and Westpac Banking Corporation. Westpac New Zealand operates through network of branches and ATMs across both the North and South Islands. Business an! d institu! tional customers are served through relationship and specialist products teams. Banking products are provided under the Westpac and WIB brands, while insurance and wealth products are provided under Westpac Life and BT brands.
Westpac�� other business divisions includes Pacific Banking, which provides banking services for retail and business customers in seven Pacific countries. Branches, ATMs, telephone banking and Internet banking channels are used to deliver its business activities in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Tonga, Solomon Islands and Samoa. Pacific Banking�� financial products include personal savings accounts, business transactional accounts, personal and business lending products, business services and a range of international products; Group Services which include technology, banking operations, legal and property services; Treasury which focuses on management of the Group�� interest rate risk and funding requirements, and Core Support which include functions performed centrally including finance, risk and human resources.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Bryan Perry]
Lloyds has several catalysts working in its favor. The bank has been busily disposing of assets that it views as non-core — the latest being a $1.45 billion ($1.37 billion U.S.) disposition of Australian operations to Aussie banking giant Westpac (WBK). In addition, Lloyds said it hopes to pay out as much as 70% of earnings as a dividend by 2016, which as a high-yield editor, has my full attention. This puts shares on a prospective yield for 2016 of more than 7% if earnings come in as projected.
- [By Fede Zaldua]
Most Australian banks seem to comply with (1) and (2). On the other hand, Australian banks have a loan to deposit ratio of 120% and around 9% of their funding is short term foreign funding. This means that their results shall be severely damaged by a steep depreciation of the local currency. A good example of a bank that is easy to short from the US (since it trades in the New York Stock Exchange) is the Westpac Banking Corporation (WBK). Westpac generates 90% of its revenues domestically and sells for 2014 13.1 times earnings and 2.1 times its 2014 expected book value. That said, there is one problem that you will find when you short Westpac's shares: The bank pays a +5% cash dividend yield.
5 Best Long Term Stocks To Watch For 2015: John B. Sanfilippo & Son Inc.(JBSS)
John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. engages in the processing and marketing of tree nuts and peanuts in the United States. It offers raw and processed nuts, including peanuts, almonds, Brazil nuts, pecans, pistachios, filberts, cashews, English walnuts, black walnuts, pine nuts, and macadamia nuts. The company provides nut products in various styles and seasonings, such as natural, blanched, oil roasted, dry roasted, unsalted, honey roasted, flavored, spicy, butter toffee, praline, and cinnamon toasted. It also offers peanut butter; food and snack products comprising snack mixes, salad toppings, natural snacks, trail mixes, dried fruit, and chocolate and yogurt coated products; baking ingredients; bulk food products; sunflower seeds, almond butter, sesame sticks, and other sesame snack products; and toppings for ice cream and yogurt. The company provides its products under various private labels, as well as under the Fisher, Orchard Valley Harvest, and Sunshine Country brand na mes. John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. markets its products through its own sales department, a network of independent brokers, and various independent distributors and suppliers to retailers and wholesalers, as well as to industrial, food service, and contract packaging customers. The company was founded in 1959 and is headquartered in Elgin, Illinois.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Garrett Cook]
Non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares rose by 0.04 percent in today’s trading. Top gainers in the sector included John B Sanfilippo & Son (NASDAQ: JBSS), up 3.3 percent, and Blyth (NYSE: BTH), up 3.1 percent.
5 Best Long Term Stocks To Watch For 2015: KongZhong Corp (HOA)
KongZhong Corporation, incorporated on May 6, 2002, is a provider of digital entertainment services for consumers in the People�� Republic of China. The Company operates in three main business units: Wireless Value-Added Services (WVAS), mobile games and Internet games. In addition to developing and operating its self-developed Internet games, such as Loong, Demon Code and Kung Fu Hero, it is an operator of the World of Tanks game for the People�� Republic of China Internet games market. In addition, it is also the licensee in the People�� Republic of China for the Guild Wars 2 game developed by ArenaNet, Offensive Combat game developed by U4iA Games and Hawken game developed by Meteor Entertainment.
The Company conducts substantially all of its business in the People�� Republic of China through its wholly owned subsidiaries KongZhong Beijing, KongZhong China and Simlife Beijing. It operates WVAS, mobile games and Internet games through Beijing AirInbox, Beijing WINT, Beijing Chengxitong, BJXR, Mailifang, Xinreli and Dacheng, all of which are based in the People�� Republic of China.
Wireless Value-Added Services (WVAS) Business
The Company provides interactive entertainment, media and other interactive services to mobile phone users in China through various second generation (2G) standard, technology platforms, including short message services (SMS), Interactive Voice Response services (IVR) and color ring back tone (CRBT), and through various second and a half generation standard (2.5G), technology and operating platforms, including wireless application protocol (WAP) and multimedia messaging services (MMS), which offer graphics, richer content and more interactivity than 2G wireless services. Its WVAS are tailored to the technical or other requirements of its telecommunications operator partners, through whom it deliver most of its WVAS, and to various billing systems for WVAS. Its WVAS are also delivered and marketed through various media partners, i! ncluding handset manufacturers, television stations, radio stations, print media and Internet sites. Its WVAS revenues accounted for 41.7% of its total revenues during the year ended December 31, 2012.
The Company offers a variety of WVAS, such as mobile games, pictures, karaoke, electronic books, mobile phone personalization features, entertainment news, chat and message boards. It provides its services mainly pursuant to its cooperation arrangements with the telecommunications operators and their provincial subsidiaries, the terms of which are generally for one year or less.
Mobile Games Business
The Company is a developer and publisher of mobile games for mobile phone users in the People�� Republic of China (PRC). The mobile games it develops include action, role-playing and leisure games. During 2012, it acquired Noumena, a developer of cross-platform smartphone mobile game engines.
Internet Games Business
The Company develops Internet games internally based mainly on its technologies, which include its game engine (Dazzler three dimension (3D)), game development platforms and online game billing system, all developed by its internal team. In particular, its Dazzler 3D game engine enables the Company to create 3D graphics and visual effects, and provides the technical foundation for creating features in its games. Its game development platforms give the Company the capacity to develop Internet games within approximately six to 24 months and to update Its Internet games frequently in response to players��preferences.
The Company uses an item-based revenue model for its games, whether internally developed or licensed, under which players can play its games on the Internet free of charge, but have to pay for purchases of in-game virtual items, such as in-game currencies, performance-enhancing clothing, weapons, accessories and pets. It distributes its electronic prepaid game cards and game points, which can be used to pur! chase in-! game virtual items, to players through multiple payment channels.
The Company competes with Sina Corporation, Sohu.com Inc., TOM Online Inc., Phoenix New Media Limited, Wireless Arts, Perfect World Co. Ltd, Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited, Netease.com, Inc., Changyou.com Limited, Giant Interactive Group Inc. and Tencent Holdings Limited.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Konrad Kuhn]
The company also has a minority interest in the privately-held Hooters of America (HOA), the operator and franchisor of over 430 Hooters restaurants; HOTR's CEO Mike Pruitt is a member of the HOA Board of Directors.
5 Best Long Term Stocks To Watch For 2015: Financial Engines Inc.(FNGN)
Financial Engines, Inc. and its subsidiaries provide independent, technology-enabled portfolio management services, investment advice, and retirement income services to participants in employer-sponsored defined contribution plans. The company helps investors plan for retirement by offering personalized plans for saving and investing, as well as by providing assessments of retirement income needs and readiness. Its services include Professional Management, a discretionary managed account service designed for plan participants who want personalized and professional portfolio management services, investment advice, and retirement income services from an independent investment advisor; Online Advice, an Internet-based non-discretionary service that offers personalized advice to plan participants who manage their portfolios directly; and Retirement Evaluation, a retirement readiness assessment provided to plan participants upon plan rollout. The company delivers its services t o plan sponsors and plan participants primarily through connections to eight retirement plan providers in the United States. Financial Engines, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By GURUFOCUS]
Our biggest contributor this quarter was Financial Engines, Inc. (FNGN), which provides personalized independent investment management and advice to employees for their retirement plans. The stock rose 26.0%. Revenues grew an impressive 29% in the first quarter, driven by additional corporate clients, more employee participation and stock market appreciation. The company recently introduced "Income Plus" an alternative to "target date" fund offerings, which is being well received and opens up potential new growth opportunities.
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