State of Play for January: Atlas Pipeline Partners, L.P. (APL), Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation (PPC)

There is little wrong with Freeport McMoRan itself.  It recently reported strong earnings which handily beat estimates following an 18% jump in copper sales.  The sales growth in copper was driven by the domestic market.  Ironically the weaker projections for Housing into 2013 will reduce demand for copper and impact Freeport McMoRan, placing it back on the defensive.  The company has a number of plans to expand its copper production in Africa, and North and South America, with 35% growth from 2012 expected, driven by unusually low metal production in 2012.  While the Domestic market might not meet company expectations (both for housing and automotive), it reported strong demand from the Middle East and is optimistic on renewed growth in China.  The outlook for 2013 is for 4.3 billion pounds of copper, and 1.4 million ounces of gold.

Atlas Pipeline also has deflationary pressures to consider, although Natural Gas prices have rebounded (relatively) sharply from early 2012 lows; doubling in price before the late year decline.  The company had another $650 million offering, which keeps the cash flowing.  Better still, it added a penny to its quarterly distribution, bringing the payment to $0.58, its 9th increase for the prior 10 quarters, and with a yield of 6.8% at time of writing.  The Hedge Fund of Leon Cooperman has built a substantial position in this stock, which confirms the long term potential of this stock.

Earnings are a bit of a roller coaster, and it either beats or misses analyst estimates by a large degree.  The past few fourth quarters haven’t been stellar, so expectations for hitting $0.24 are probably low.  With a P/E of 32.3 it’s also well above the Industry average of 22.9.

The article State of Play for January originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Declan Fallon.

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