Professor Joshua Landis is the Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at The University of Oklahoma. Prof. Landis joins The Stock Podcast to discuss the recent Saudi oil attack. On Sept. 14, 2019, the world awoke to the news that numerous drones and scud missiles hit Abqaiq, the world’s largest oil processing facility. The attack resulted in 5.7 million barrels of oil production capacity going offline, which equates to about 6% of global oil production. The event was the single largest loss of Saudi oil production in history. Immediately after the attack, Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi’s claimed responsibility. However, Prof. Landis is convinced that Iran is ultimately responsible, and the country with the most to gain from an attack on Saudi oil infrastructure.
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Mike Rothman is the President and Founder of Cornerstone Analytics, an independent research firm that provides macro energy research. Mike is an industry veteran, having covered the oil market sector since 1984. He started his career at Merrill Lynch, built the energy research platform at ISI, and has attended OPEC meetings since 1986. Mike joins The Stock Podcast to discuss the global oil market, capacity reserves, and supply following the recent attack on the Abqaiq oil processing facility. On Sept. 14, 2019, the world awoke to the news that numerous drones and scud missiles hit Abqaiq, the world’s largest oil processing facility. The attack resulted in 5.7 million barrels of oil production capacity going offline, which equates to about 6% of global oil production. The event was the single largest loss of Saudi oil production in history.
Duke Austin is the CEO & COO of Quanta Services (PWR). Quanta provides E&C contracting services and comprehensive infrastructure solutions for electric and gas utilities, oil and gas companies, and the communications industry. Tune in to hear Duke describe his business, the outlook for US energy infrastructure and 5G build-out, and the financial goals Quanta is targeting.
Brad Slingerlend and Brinton Johns are the co-founders of NZS Capital, LLC, an investment firm that focuses on innovative businesses that demonstrate non-zero-sum (NZS) characteristics. If you’re wondering what non-zero-sum means in investing, you really have to listen to this episode! Brad and Brinton are veteran tech investors with a top tier performance track record. Together they oversaw the Janus Henderson Technology funds for nearly 10 years. Over that period, they honed and perfected their investment philosophy and principles, which they share in this episode.
Mark Harding is the CEO of Pure Cycle Corp (PCYO), a growing water utility in Denver, CO. Mark rejoins The Stock Podcast to talk about the progress his company has made on the first two phases of Sky Ranch, a master plan community his company has been developing over the past decade. Mark also provides his perspectives on the oil and gas industry in the state of Colorado, his thoughts on the valuation of PCYO stock, what he’s been hearing from investors, and some insight into how he’s currently thinking about shareholder returns.
One concept that every student learns in business school is Porter’s Five Forces. So I thought that with this episode I’d walk through Porter’s Five Forces for podcasting businesses. It’s a good way to demonstrate some of the things I’ve learned over the past year, while at the same time provide listeners with an annual overview. I’m also using this episode as an opportunity to talk about some changes to The Stock Podcast. At the very least, you’ll learn about one of the most well-known concepts in finance used to analyze the competitive landscape.
Meg Gentle is the CEO of Tellurian Inc (ticker symbol TELL), a company that is developing a massive LNG export terminal in Louisiana called Driftwood. Meg joins The Stock Podcast to talk about Tellerian Inc.’s asset portfolio, US energy exports, and the LNG industry. If you don’t know what LNG is, you really need to listen to this interview with Meg. LNG is one of the fastest growing exports in the US. Why? Because the cost to produce natural gas in the US keeps falling, and with growing domestic supply, this commodity needs a home. And it’s companies like Tellurian that make it possible to send the natural gas to international markets. At the time this interview was recorded, Tellurian Inc. had a market cap of $1.9B, nearly $60M of debt, and a little more than $130M in cash, bringing the total enterprise value to just shy of $1.8B.
To summarize some of the key points, Tellurian is developing the Driftwood LNG export terminal. But what’s really interesting about Tellurian compared to other LNG companies is that they’re building an integrated system. That means Tellurian won’t just liquify the natural gas, but they’ll own a piece of the production, transportation, and liquefaction.
And by building an integrated LNG business, that essentially gives the Tellurian full control of its future. To put things in context as to why LNG exports are such a big deal, consider that about a decade ago, the US was importing LNG. But something interesting was happening in the oil patch during the early 2000s. Some small, intrepid energy companies were developing a new way to extract oil and gas from something called shale. As the frackers perfected this new method of oil and gas extraction, production costs came down and supply started to grow very rapidly. With the growth in domestic supply, natural gas prices declined precipitously. While it may not make gas producers super happy, the price of natural gas in the US has declined to the extent that the country will soon become one of the largest LNG exporters in the world. For producers, at least there’s a volume story!
The Stock Podcast is super excited to have Gabriel Weinberg on the program. Gabriel is the founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused search engine. And if you’re like me, when you heard the name DuckDuckGo, you probably did a double take. It’s a strange name, but so was Google. Yeah, I’m comparing this company to Google because it makes sense. That’s because DuckDuckGo is one of Google’s biggest competitors. You might be scratching your head at that statement because, well you probably didn’t think Google had any competitors.
That, in an of itself is a strange concept. I’ll wager that even the most die-hard free market capitalist uses Google for search, but doesn’t realize that they’re supporting a monopoly by using Google. Approximately 90% of internet search queries go through Google. Think about that for a moment…
Across the globe, the majority of us use Google almost exclusively for online discovery. Assume for a moment that your search results aren’t exactly what you actually searched for, but rather tailored by your search history and your location. Well, DDG doesn’t do any of that. You’re completely anonymous on DDG. You’ll hear a lot more about this from Gabriel, who is possibly one of the greatest intellects I’ve had the honor of interviewing. Just as a summary, the interview covers a lot of different topics like data privacy, the history of search, how Google became the behemoth that it is, Gabriel’s background and a bit about DuckDuckGo. But before getting to these topics, we spend about 45 minutes discussing Gabriel’s new book, Super Thinking – The Big Book Of Mental Models, which Gabriel wrote with his wife Lauren McCann. The book is truly fantastic and I encourage anyone who desires to be a better decision-maker to give it a read.
The CEO and co-founder of Sandstorm Gold Royalties (SAND), Nolan Watson, joins The Stock Podcast to talk about his company and a truly compelling investment story. Sandstorm Gold is a precious metals royalty company. Sandstorm helps finance mining operations in exchange for a royalty interest in the precious metals that a mining company produces. It’s a really interesting business model, and Nolan does a phenomenal job describing a company that screens as quite undervalued.
The interview really is truly fantastic, in my opinion. One of the reasons I like it so much is because Nolan has a deep understanding of how the investing landscape has changed, and he does a great job describing those changes. With the growth in passive investing, mining companies have been starved of capital. The end result is that it’s become very challenging for mining companies to grow. However, situations like these present opportunities and Sandstorm and Nolan are capitalizing and profiting from these opportunities.
Ted Seides is the host of the Capital Allocators Podcast, one of the few podcasts I try extremely hard not to miss. Capital Allocators is a phenomenal podcast where Ted talks to investors, managers, strategists, and thought leaders. He was a founder and Co-Chief Investment Officer at Protégé Partners, an alternative investment firm. Tune in to hear Ted talk about his motivations for starting a podcast, hedge funds, and hedge fund fees.
If you listen to this podcast, there’s probably a good chance you listen to other investing podcasts, so you may already know Ted as the host of the Capital Allocators Podcast. In the event you don’t know about Capital Allocators, you really need to check it out. Before I started my own podcast, I listened to a lot of different investing podcasts. But once I started IwtB, my free time became limited and forced me to become a little more selective with the podcasts I listen to. But Capital Allocators and Ted Seides have consistently been a personal podcast staple! That’s because the content is fantastic, Ted’s guests are super high caliber, and because I really like Ted’s way of interviewing his guests.
If the name Ted Seides rings a bell, but you just can’t place it, Ted placed a charitable wager with Warren Buffett that pitted the S&P against several funds of hedge funds. It was a friendly 10-year wager that ended in 2017, and the subject really has been beaten to death, so it isn’t a focal point of this interview. There’s a ton of material on the web and I’ve included a link here that really covers everything you might want to know.
As a podcaster, it’s great for me to have Ted on the program to hear him talk about the motivation behind starting Capital Allocators, some of the challenges he’s faced with podcasting, and who he’d like to interview most. As an investor, it’s super interesting to hear Ted’s current views on the hedge fund industry and about hedge fund fees.