FGP posts
FeedPosted Mar 29th 2011 5:00PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Stocks to Buy

Ferrellgas Partners LP (
FGP), first discussed here on Jan. 28, 2011 at a price of $28.39, briefly tested $29 twice during the winter, before retreating to $25, but I still like the shares. Here's why:
Ferrellgas is the second largest seller of propane in the United States -- a fuel primarily used in areas where natural gas in not available or can not be easily transported.
FGP will likely post a nice 8% to 11% revenue gain in 2011, following a 1% rise in 2010. Sales gains will be supported by slowly increasing prices for propane.
Continue reading Is Now a Good Time to Consider Ferrellgas Partners?
Posted Jan 28th 2011 6:00PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Stocks to Buy

Readers of this space know that one preferred sector is natural gas, and its companion sectors and services, and with the aforementioned in mind Ferrellgas Partners LP (
FGP) is worth a review.
Ferrellgas is the second largest seller of propane in the United States -- a fuel primarily used in areas where natural gas in not available or can not be easily transported to.
Look for Ferrellas to post a nice 8-11% revenue gain in 2011, following a flattish 2010. Sales gains will likely be supported by slowly increasing prices for propane.
Continue reading Ferrellgas Partners LP: Promising Propane Play
Posted Dec 7th 2008 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Forecasts, AutoZone Inc (AZO), H and R Block (HRB), Ciena Corp (CIEN), Kroger Co (KR), Costco Wholesale (COST)
Even as the holiday season ramps up and the calendar quarter begins to wind down, earnings reports continue to dribble in. Among the companies scheduled to release quarterly results this coming week, analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are expecting BWAY Holding Co. (NYSE: BWY), Powell Industries Inc. (NASDAQ: POWL), and Esterline Technologies Corp. (NYSE: ESL) to be among the biggest earnings gainers.
Atlanta-based packaging and container producer BWAY is expected to report fiscal fourth-quarter profits that are 65.6% higher than in the same period of last year, or $0.32 per share on revenues of $265.2 million (+4.9%). BWAY topped estimates in the previous two quarters -- by 44.9% in the third quarter. Those results sent shares to a new 52-week high. But shares have fallen 62.7% in the past three months, and they are now trading near a multiyear low of $4.11 per share.
Houston-based energy equipment maker Powell is expected to report fiscal fourth-quarter profits that are 62.7% higher than a year ago, or $0.59 per share. Revenues are forecast to be 14.2% higher, or $171.8 million. Powell beat expectations in the past three quarters -- by 20.2% in the third quarter. The share price has fallen 47.7% in the past three months, and the consensus recommendation is to buy POWL.
Continue reading The week in preview: Early December earnings expectations
Posted Mar 15th 2008 3:40PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Google (GOOG), Wal-Mart (WMT), Target Corp. (TGT), NIKE, Inc'B' (NKE), United Parcel'B' (UPS), Jones Soda (JSDA), Texas Instruments (TXN), Liz Claiborne (LIZ)
Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:
Continue reading Earnings highlights: Humana, Texas Instruments, UPS, Liz Clairborne, and others
Posted Mar 12th 2008 3:28PM by Victoria Erhart (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Bad News, Commodities
Ferrellgas Partners, L.P. (NYSE: FGP), a huge propane distributor, recently reported Nov-Jan results. Propane is still the heating source of choice for several million households. How is it that Ferrellgas saw a drop in gross profits during its winter quarter? Granted, the drop in gross profit was not huge, and revenues for the winter quarter increased 15% to $764 million.
But results like this should cause utility and energy stock investors to take a closer look at just how a utility company actually makes its money, particularly with the ongoing deregulation of many utilities. Does a utility or energy company make its money on sales of a commodity, or on renting out its distribution network? Or is the utility or energy company more of a finance company that makes (or loses) money based on its pricing of a commodity?
Such seems to be the case with Ferrellgas Partners in its recent quarter. It lost money because it priced future delivery of propane without factoring in a steep rise in the cost of propane. There is no way to predict or control winter temperatures and resulting level of demand, but a company should be able to accurately hedge its own price contracts to account for fluctuations in demand in its own industry and price its risk accordingly. Failure to adequately price risk is what has led to the subprime mortgage mess. No one wants to see energy and utility companies, and their customers, suffer the same economic debacle.
Posted Dec 13th 2007 5:52PM by Victoria Erhart (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Good news
Ferrellgas Partners L.P. (NYSE: FGP) is the nation's second largest propane distributor with more than 1 million customers all over the country. The company recently released first quarter (Q1) fiscal year (FY) 2008 results, always a difficult quarter in the company's seasonal heating cycle. Q1 gross profit set a record of $131.4 million, and adjusted EBITDA rose 18% to a record $23.2 million. These numbers are quite impressive given the fact that Ferrellgas faced record wholesale costs for propane and October temperatures that were 24% above normal, reducing the need for propane heating usage by 20 million gallons.
Ferrellgas did post a seasonal net loss for Q1, but it was $6 million smaller than last year's seasonal net loss, indicating that Ferrellgas has made serious efforts to control other types of fixed costs to compensate for reduced off-season cash flow. While operating expenses edged up slightly, this increase was offset by a decrease in equipment leasing expenses. Ferrellgas is well positioned to return to its typical profit pattern in the winter heating season in Q2 FY 2008.