Ken Anderson - Former Texas Public Utility Commissioner

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.

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.

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.  

Vistra Energy’s CEO rejoins The Stock Podcast to provide an update on the VST stock thesis. It’s always a pleasure to have Curt on the program to talk about his company and provide updates on the investment story. VST is one of my personal favorite investment ideas and Curt does a fantastic job of highlighting the key elements of the investment thesis. If you’d like to tune in to the first interview with Curt, click here!

CONSOL Energy’s CEO, Jimmy Brock, and CONSOL’s CFO, David Khani, join The Stock Podcast to describe the CONSOL investment thesis and the business of mining coal. CONSOL is one of the premier coal producers in the country. Tune in to hear management talk about the outlook for the business, the industry, and one of the most valuable coal assets in North America, the Pennsylvania Mining Complex.

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!

Steve Newby is the Founder and CEO of Summit Midstream Partners (SMLP). Tune in to hear Steve discuss Summit’s operations, his view on industry fundamentals, and what Steve and his team are doing to grow the business and improve cash flow stability. It’s a great interview that highlights the disconnect between a positive outlook and a seemingly mispriced security!

Pat Sanchez is the President and COO of Sanchez Midstream Partners (SNMP). Listen to Pat describe SNMP’s operation and what gathering, processing, and fractionation are all about.

Kirk Andrews, EVP and CFO of NRG Energy (NRG), discusses the history of NRG and describes some of the big factors that have affected the merchant power generation industry since the turn of the century. Part 1 of the Kirk Andrews interview provides some really interesting background on the power business in general, and fascinating insights into possibly the most underappreciated subsectors in the market today.

Chris Sighinolfi is a Managing Director and research analyst with Jefferies Research. Chris is one of Wall Street’s top-rated analysts covering midstream, MLPs, and natural gas services. In this episode of The Stock Podcast, Chris provides an excellent primer for the midstream/MLP sector. It’s a great interview with Chris providing a lot of context and insight into an undervalued subsector of the energy industry. If you’d like to learn about midstream space from one of the best analysts on the Street, this is the podcast to listen to.

Bob Frenzel is the CFO at Xcel Energy (XEL), one of the largest and greenest utilities in the US. Tune in to the Buyside podcast to hear Bob breakdown everything you’ve wanted to know about utility investing. Topics discussed include the regulatory process, renewable energy, carbon-free target, replacement cost, and how to value utilities.

In this interview, you’ll hear Bob talk about some of the elements that are required for a utility to be, well, a great utility. You’ll also hear about Xcel’s carbon-free ambitions and what the company will have to do to achieve their targets. And here’s a spoiler, achieving a carbon-free generation portfolio isn’t solely based on wind, solar, and batteries. The solution is actually much more complicated than pundits would like you to believe.

Bob also does a great job of describing just what the regulatory process is like for a utility, how a utility justifies spending money that we, as ratepayers, essentially pay for, and Bob also talks a little about how a utility determines the rates that we as customers must pay. As someone who likes to talk about the future of electric generation and utilities, having Bob on the program is a real treat, but for me, there are two really interesting topics that are discussed.

The first is the fact that regulated utilities don’t generate a ton of free cash flow. That’s because they’re constantly reinvesting into the grid. The second relates to replacement cost or replacement value. I won’t spoil that last one. It’s a doozy, at least for the value investors out there!

Michael Rucker is the CEO and Founder of Scout Clean Energy, a private renewable energy developer. Michael is a renewable energy veteran with many years of experience developing utility-scale renewable energy facilities. Tune in to hear Michael talk about the history of Scout Clean Energy and renewable energy project development.

Bahir Manios is the CFO of Brookfield Infrastructure, one of the largest diversified infrastructure companies in the world. Tune in to hear Bahir discuss BIP‘s asset portfolio, investment philosophy, and a very compelling investment story.