Wednesday, January 16, 2008

MLPs earnings season

This is also earnings season for MLPs. MLPs are partnerships with limited partners buying units rather than shares to receive distributions rather than dividends. Most of the distributions are not taxed, but there is also a fair amount of hassle after receiving the K-1 tax statement late in the season.

Reported earnings can be fuzzy. Generally they pay out more than earnings, many times around double. Whether earnings go up or down doesn't seem to matter, distributions are increased regularly (go figgah). They need a lot of new capital (i.e. have to keep selling units to finance expansion) giving them incentive to keep increasing distributions. Many have yields over 6% which attracts investors.

Current earnings vary but seem to look good. As usual, many distributions have been increased. For more info, check out Joe's excellent blog, limitedpartnerships.blogspot.com.

Meanwhile Asian stocks are doing well, up 1%, during our overnight period. Even Tokyo is up after falling sharply in recent days. Oil is 91 & gold is down to 880.

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