1 Under-The-Radar Pipeline Company Investors Should Consider

In this Industry Focus clip, Motley Fool energy analysts Sean O'Reilly and Taylor Muckerman take a look at Pembina Pipelines (PBA -0.83%), a solid Canadian pipeline company that investors might want to take a look at if they're looking for more energy exposure in their portfolio.

Sean O'Reilly: We had a listener tweet into our @TMFEnergy Twitter handle. Peter F Smith, @PSUPete, tweets at us and says, "When are you guys going to do a deep dive into Pembina?" Nailed it. You told me to say it like a Canadian.

Taylor Muckerman: Yeah. Well, it's even quicker in the YouTube videos, Pembina.

O'Reilly: Why do they drop the "B"?

Muckerman: I don't know; it's just the way it sounds. I don't know if they're dropping it or not.

O'Reilly: To all of our wonderful Canadian listeners, our neighbors to the north, please tell us why the "B" is dropped.

Muckerman: It sounds like you can kind of hear a "B," but you can't really hear the "B." Pembina.

O'Reilly: You can't really hear the "B." Stop.

Muckerman: Pembina Pipelines.

O'Reilly: Nailed it. This guy says, "I would love Taylor's insights." Taylor, what do you think about Pembina?

Muckerman: There's a lot of pressure. It's a Canadian company, so shout out to the folks I work with on Motley Fool Canada services. Pipelines, so not necessarily having the same constraints as the Permian, because they're dealing with the oil sands, crude oil, oil sands, and natural gas liquids, out of the Western Canadian sedimentary basin, and ethane from North Dakota and Saskatchewan. 

O'Reilly: Is this oil sands?

Muckerman: Not all of it. It still does regular crude oil and natural gas liquids. But then you have ethane singled out as one of the natural gas liquids. So pretty well diversified in terms of the natural resources that they're funneling through their pipelines. Seems to be growing pretty rapidly, about $1.2 billion in projects completed last year, trying to complete $4.3 billion in projects this year. Most of it should be done by the middle of 2017, with a few stragglers coming in toward the end. Definitely upping their capacity, trying to be Canada's largest gas processor. And if you think about the need for the fractionation of natural gas liquids into all their base, ethane and butane and everything, and also just natural gas processing in general, the use of it for energy and input, it seems to be a smart idea.

O'Reilly: If you haven't heard of the company, these guys are not small.

Muckerman: No, they're not small at all.

O'Reilly: They're a $12.9 billion market cap, dividend yield of 4.8%. Is this common? They're one of those guys that pay a monthly dividend.

Muckerman: It is fairly common in Canada.

O'Reilly: I like my monthly, check, eh? [laughs] 

Muckerman: Yeah. It's not like 50% of the market does it, but yeah, there's certainly significantly more companies doing it up there than in the United States. Speaking of their dividend, very consistent dividend growth. They just raised their annual dividend by 6.25%. Not yield-wise, but payment-wise.

O'Reilly: That's $0.16 to $0.17 a month, something like that?

Muckerman: I don't remember exactly what the exact cents work out to on a monthly basis, but the overall payment for an annual basis raised by 6.25%, April 3. And it's not just a one-time thing. They've been raising their dividends pretty consistently over the last decade or so, and improving margins, improving their cash flow. Certainly seems to be operating at a very high level. Eighty percent of their contracts and EBITDA come from fees for services, so pretty stable, consistent, you have good foresight into what kind of revenue they're going to be making on a year-in, year-out basis. And a very secure customer base, around 80% of their customers having investment-grade credit ratings or secured counterparties.

O'Reilly: Sounds like an interesting company.

Muckerman: Yeah. If the oil markets go bump again, they're at fairly low risk to have bankrupt customers that can't foot the bill. So yeah, seems like a good company. I hadn't really ever taken too deep of a dive in it. But I do love the midstream, the pipeline companies in the oil space, if you're going to get exposure to energy. And growing capacity, growing dividend, and sound balance sheets. Certainly worth looking at for anybody that wants access to the Canadian oil markets.