Michael Rucker - CEO and Founder of Scout Clean Energy

Wouter van Kempen is the Chairman and CEO of DCP Midstream, the largest natural gas gathering and processor company in the United States. Tune in to hear Wouter describe DCP‘s operational footprint, the game-changing technological advancements his company is implementing, and a truly compelling investment story.

DCP Midstream is one of a few MLPs that can boast of having consistently delivered on the inherent agreement between shareholder and management. The agreement relates to the cash the company distributes to investors via the dividend. Sure, one could argue that DCP is a troubled investment story, evidenced by the lack of dividend growth since the commodity price collapse of 2014. However, Wouter van Kempen and his team have done a phenomenal job steering DCP through a very uncertain period of the North American energy cycle and has delivered on one of the most critical components of the MLP investment thesis – stable distributions to shareholders!

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.

NRG Energy’s CFO Kirk Andrews rejoins The Stock Podcast to provide a business update. Tune in to hear Kirk describe NRG’s path to investment grade and what that could mean for the equity value of the company.

NRG is an integrated power producer. The company owns generation assets that primarily sell power at wholesale prices. NRG also operates a large portfolio of retail electricity companies. The integrated nature of NRG’s asset portfolio provides investors with stable cashflows. When power prices are high, the generation business benefits. When power prices are low, the retail business benefits. It’s an impressive mousetrap with high barriers to entry.  

Barry Davis is the CEO of EnLink Midstream, LLC (NYSE: ENLC), an integrated midstream company serving the oil and gas industry. ENLC operates gathering, processing, compression, transportation, and fractionation assets. Tune in to hear Barry describe ENLC’s operations and to hear him talk about current investor sentiment in the oil and gas space, the benefits of the c-corp structure for midstream, and his thoughts around the distribution.

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.

Super League Gaming (SLGG) CEO Ann Hand joins The Stock Podcast to describe the investment case for her company. Esports is a relatively new commercial market, but it’s growing rapidly and there are numerous ways for companies like SLGG to capitalize on that growth. Tune in to here Ann describe a really interesting investment story.

Mike Garland, President and CEO of Pattern Energy (PEGI), is a wind energy veteran who leads one of the most formidable wind energy companies in North America. Mike provides an enormous amount of context and insight into the wind energy business and the outlook for the industry, as well as critical perspectives as to how investors should be thinking about the PEGI investment thesis.

Orthobiologics are living substances like stem cells and platelet rich plasma (PRP) that some medical doctors use in the rehabilitation process. Dr. Matthew Lucas from the Centeno-Schultz Clinic, based out of Denver, CO, joins the podcast to explain the use of stem cells and PRP in medicine today.

Tom O’Flynn is the CFO of AES Corporation (AES). Tom provides a great overview of AES Corporation’s business model. He also discusses some really interesting catalysts for the company and highlights a compelling investment case for the shares of AES’ stock.

AES is a power company, but it’s different from regulated utilities, IPPs, and yieldcos, yet at the same time has similar characteristics. The asset portfolio includes traditional generation facilities, renewables, and a lot of the essential infrastructure required to produce and transmit electricity. Since the current management took the reins in 2011, they’ve pruned the portfolio, with more than $5B in asset sales over the past 7 years and exited 13 countries. During that time, management reduced parent level debt by $2B, cut costs by $300M, and they’ve returned almost $3B of cash to shareholders.

Part of the return to shareholders has been through dividends, and AES has also bought back about 16% of their stock since 2011. Another interesting fact is that the company has reduced coal generation capacity by about 20% over the past three years, and they’ve replaced a large portion of that capacity with renewable energy. De-risking the business has also been a key priority. Management has reduced AES’ FX exposure to around 15% from 40%.

Maybe one of the most interesting facts about AES Corp is that they are the largest owner of battery storage in the world, and the recently announced storage JV with Siemens called Fluence. The Fluence JV positions AES extremely well for the future. One of the reasons the battery JV is so interesting is because of the growth outlook. Generally speaking, growth investors aren’t interested in utilities. That’s because, double-digit earnings growth in utility-land is almost unheard of, at least not on multi-year outlook.

Another potentially big catalyst for AES Corp includes IMO 2020. This is a gross oversimplification, but IMO 2020 puts a cap on the amount of sulphur shipping vessels are allowed to use in fuel oil. This global regulation bodes well for global LNG demand. And with respect to debt, individual projects financed with non-recourse term debt, which means there is a natural deleveraging component to the business.

Something I like about this management team is that they’re focused on what they know, understand, and where they believe they have a competitive advantage. This perspective led to reducing the number of countries where they operate and becoming more acutely focused on developing and owning long-lived infrastructure assets.

Charles and Colvard’s CEO , Suzanne Miglucci, joins The Stock Podcast to discuss moissanite gemstones, e-commerce, digital marketing, direct-to-consumer (DTC) selling and her vision for the company. Charles & Colvard (Nasdaq: CTHR) is the original and leading source of moissanite, the world’s most brilliant gemstone. CTHR manufactures, markets, and distributes moissanite gemstones as well as jewelry that incorporates the gemstones.

Part 2 of the interview with NRG Energy‘s EVP and CFO, Kirk Andrews. The second part of the interview addresses some of the changes the company has gone through over the past several years, the Transformation Plan that was outlined in mid-2017, and Kirk’s capital allocation philosophy. Importantly, Kirk talks about the potential uses of cash over the next few years. It’s a great interview with a CFO for whom I have a ton of respect.

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!