Petroleum products logistics provider Buckeye Partners (NYSE: BPL ) is out with its first-quarter earnings. It was a very solid quarter for the MLP with steady performance across its business segments. Let's take a closer look at how the company performed in three areas that I previewed as being the most important to watch.
The numbers
Buckeye beat analysts' expectations by delivering first-quarter income of $89.3 million, or $0.86 a unit, which exceeded the projection of $0.73 a unit. Revenue of $1.34 billion also beat expectations of $1.29 billion. Strong performance at Buckeye's terminal operations along with a big improvement at its energy services segment led to the�excellent�performance this quarter.
Buckeye reported distributable cash flow of $124.2 million which provided it with a coverage ratio of 1.21 times. This represented a very nice year-over-year increase to distributable cash flow which was $73.6 million last year and represented a coverage ratio just 0.78 times. Better overall business performance and the contribution from its growth projects provided a nice boost to the bottom line. The big news here is that the coverage ratio was high enough this quarter for the company to finally raise its distribution.
Hot Logistics Companies To Own For 2014: Achillion Pharmaceuticals Inc.(ACHN)
Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, engages in the discovery, development, and commercialization of treatments for infectious diseases. The company focuses on the development of antivirals for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C; and the development of antibacterials for the treatment of resistant bacterial infections. Its drug candidates for the treatment of chronic HCV include ACH-1625, a protease inhibitor, which is in phase IIa clinical trial for the treatment of chronic HCV; ACH-2684, a pangenotypic protease inhibitor, which is in phase I clinical trial for the treatment of chronic HCV infection; and NS5A inhibitors for the treatment of chronic HCV infection, including ACH-2928, which is to enter a phase I clinical trial, as well as various additional NS5A inhibitors in preclinical development. Its pipeline of product candidates also includes ACH-702 and ACH-2881 for drug resistant bacterial infections; elvucitabine for HIV infection; and AC H-1095 for HCV infection. The company was founded in 1998 and is based in New Haven, Connecticut.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Brian Nichols]
Achillion is an odd play because it has both the most upside and the most downside of any stock on this list. The company's developing and testing its hepatitis C treating drug, ACH-1625, which is currently in phase II. The results of initial testing have consisted of ups and downs, but after many years and a long process, ACH-1625, appears to be on the right track for an FDA approval.
The upside in shares of ACHN comes from two places: encouraging data from trials and its likelihood of being acquired. In my opinion, ACHN has a very high chance of being acquired in the next 6 months. Both Pharmasset (VRUS) and Inhibitex (INHX) were acquired over the last 5 months with insanely large premiums. VRUS was purchased at a 81% premium and INHX for a 182% premium. ACHN is perhaps the most speculative, but it could also be purchased the cheapest.
The stock's recently pulled back after a downgrade and is trading much lower over the last couple weeks. The stock's trend reminds me so much of INHX; the month following the VRUS acquisition when INHX traded higher by nearly 300%. But then after the one-month gain, INHX lost its momentum and traded lower by 40% before being acquired with a 182% premium. INHX traded higher after the VRUS purchase because investors thought it would also be acquired, because of its hepatitis C candidate. ACHN is following the same trend, from November 12 till January 13 the stock more than doubled, but has since retraced.
At $10 I think ACHN is a buy, it does have a good HCV candidate, and I believe that big pharma will bid to acquire ACHN in the near future. However, the risk in ACHN is if the company's not acquired, then it could have significant loss over the next year. But in a competitive biotechnology industry I believe the reward is worth the risk, and that a large pharma company will take the chance and purchase ACHN in an attempt to stay competitive and capitalize on the trend of investors being bullish on HCV treating drugs.
- [By Wyatt Research]
The developer of treatments for infectious diseases has seen its shares rise 280 percent in the past year, and last month had a successful sale of 1.44 million more shares that raised $60.9 million.
Hot Logistics Companies To Own For 2014: Republic First Bancorp Inc.(FRBK)
Republic First Bancorp, Inc. operates as the holding company for Republic First Bank that offers banking services to individuals and businesses. It accepts various deposit products that include consumer and commercial deposit accounts, including checking accounts; interest-bearing demand accounts; money market accounts; certificates of deposit; savings accounts; sweep accounts; and individual retirement accounts, as well as provides lockbox services. The company?s loan portfolio comprises secured and unsecured commercial loans, real estate loans, construction and land development loans, automobile loans, home improvement loans, mortgages, home equity and overdraft lines of credit, and other products. It opertaes through six Philadelphia offices and seven suburban offices in Plymouth Meeting, Bala Cynwyd, Ardmore, and Abington located in Montgomery County; Media located in Delaware County; and Haddonfield and Voorhees, located in Southern New Jersey. The company was founde d in 1987 and is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Top 5 Gold Stocks To Buy Right Now: Emerald Oil & Gas NL(EMR.AX)
Emerald Oil & Gas NL engages in the exploration and development of oil and gas properties. The company holds interests in various oil and gas properties located in Colorado, Wyoming, Kentucky, and Texas in the United States, as well as in offshore Western Australia. The company is based in West Perth, Australia.
Hot Logistics Companies To Own For 2014: Semtech Corporation(SMTC)
Semtech Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, designs, produces, and markets analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products. The company?s product lines include protection products comprising filter and termination devices that provide protection for electronic systems from voltage spikes; power management products consisting of switching voltage regulators, combination switching and linear regulators, smart regulators, and charge pumps; and discrete semiconductor products, such as rectifiers, assemblies, and other products. It also offers wired communication, ultra-high speed Serializer/Deserializer, and modulator driver products that perform timing, synchronization, and amplification functions in high-speed networks; chips and transceivers for short reach, metro, and long haul applications; and high performance transceivers for datacenter applications. In addition, the company provides wireless and sensing products that perform radio frequency functions in indust rial, medical, and networking applications; and sensing functions in industrial and consumer applications. It serves original equipment manufacturers and their subcontractors in the computing, communications, consumer, and industrial end-markets directly, and through independent distributors and sales representative firms in North America, the Asia Pacific, and Europe. Semtech Corporation was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in Camarillo, California.
Hot Logistics Companies To Own For 2014: Tio Networks Corp(TNC.V)
TIO Networks Corp. operates as a multi-channel expedited bill payment processor serving the telecom, wireless, cable, and utility bill issuers in North America. It engages in processing bill payment transactions through a secure Internet enabled platform. The company integrates its transaction processing system to the accounting back-office of its billers, which allows billers to post payments made by the billers? customers to the appropriate customer accounts. Its products and services include kiosk systems consisting of hardware, software, and implementation services related to the initial sale of kiosks; professional services comprising computer software programming, consulting, and kiosk rental services; transaction services relating to consumer pay-per-use transactions, such as bill payments performed through kiosks, point-of-sale, and Web and mobile devices; and maintenance services, which include hardware and software maintenance services, as well as software produ cts. TIO Networks Corp. is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.
No comments:
Post a Comment