Patient Home Monitoring Announces Another Record Quarter of Revenue and Profit,

Our Top Spec Pick

		LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA--(Marketwired - April 28, 2015) - Patient Home Monitoring (PHM) (TSX VENTURE:PHM), a profitable company focused on rolling-up annuity-based healthcare service companies in the US and Canada, today provided highlights of its financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2015.

FYQ2 2015 Highlights

Increased Revenue



--  Revenue for the quarter rose to $13,036,000 million, a 28% increase from
    the previous quarter and a 255% increase year over year.
--  Revenues included only 2 months of Black Bear Medical and only 1 month
    of West Home Health.
--  March Revenue exceeded $5,179,000 or $62,148,000 annualized run rate
    revenue.

Organic Growth Summary

To date, PHM has acquired 5 companies with reported trailing 12-month revenues totaling$40,500,000.

Post acquisition revenues have risen by $21,648,000 in annualized revenues.

Improved Profitability

--  Net income (footnote before stock-based comp) rose to $1,618,543, a
    23.5% increase from the previous quarter. (2)
--  Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization
    (EBITDA) including transactional and nonrecurring cost rose to
    $2,858,079, a 20.3% increase from the previous quarter. (3)
--  Earnings per share (EPS) rose 71% from the previous quarter. (1)

Mergers & Acquisitions

--  PHM finalized 2 acquisitions this quarter: Black Bear Medical of Maine
    and New Hampshire and West Home Health of Virginia.
--  PHM has executed 2 LOIs this quarter: a $16.5 million revenue company in
    Colorado and a $20 million revenue company in Tennessee.
--  PHM is in term sheet negotiations with 8 companies, ranging from $3
    million in revenues to over $30 million in revenues.
--  PHM has increased investment in the M&A team to increase the quantity
    and quality of potential acquisition targets.

“This is our 8th consecutive quarter of record revenues and profits,” reported Michael Dalsin, Chairman of PHM. “Our March revenues of $5,179,000, which translates to annualized revenues of $62,148,000, were higher than expected. Our executive team continues to execute well on integration and cross selling, which is reflected in our financial results.”

“Our acquisition and organic growth model is working well in this fast growing market. Our business plan has been proven effective and there have been no recent regulatory changes to prevent us from continuing it” said Mr. Dalsin. “We had a productive quarter in terms of signing LOIs and when closed, we will exceed $100 million in annualized revenues. We are also working toward finalizing the LOI with a $40 million annual revenue business very soon.”

Full financial results are available on sedar.com.

PHM is rolling-up a large and fragmented market of small, profitable businesses providing healthcare products and services to chronically ill patients. The companies are acquired for their technical and market expertise in certain product and service lines, as well as their patient databases. Once acquired, PHM works to offer these newly acquired services to its entire patient base, thereby increasing revenue per patient and achieving organic post acquisition revenue growth and profits.

PHM will host an interactive Q&A earnings call at 4p.m. EST on Wednesday, April 29, 2015 to provide in depth data and analysis about the quarterly results.

Participants from PHM will be Michael Dalsin (Chairman), Roger Greene (Vice Chairman), David Hayes (CEO) and Andrew Folmer (CFO).

The details of the call will be released shortly.

Financial professionals are invited to call in and ask questions. To pre-register as a qualified caller, please e-mail dwilson@myphm.com by 5 p.m. EST Tuesday, April 28th, 2015.

About PHM

PHM is an acquisition-oriented, fast-growing and profitable company servicing patients with heart disease and other chronic health conditions. PHM is focused on acquiring companies in a highly fragmented and developing market of small privately-held companies servicing chronically ill patients with multiple disease states caused mainly by age and obesity. Because of the new and highly fragmented nature of the market, PHM is actively identifying and evaluating profitable, annuity-based companies to acquire at favorable prices for their patient databases and technical expertise. PHM’s post-acquisition organic growth strategy is to increase annual revenue per patient by offering multiple services to the same patient, consolidating the patient’s services and making life easier for the patient. The expected result is growing EPS with each acquisition and growing revenue and profits from the cross selling efforts.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

(1) EPS and Net Profit does not include IFRS Fair Value of options, warrants expense and stock based compensation. EPS growth was calculated using the following information:

Shares Outstanding Q2 2015            Shares Outstanding Q2 2014
203,084,354                           128,752,044

Net Profit                            Net Profit
$1,618,544
		$594,029

EPS                                   EPS
$0.0079
		$0.0046

(2) Net Profit does not include Stock Based Compensation or change in the IFRS Fair Value of options and warrants expense.

(3) Adjusted EBITDA is defined as EBITDA plus Stock Based Compensation.

Forward-Looking Statements

Information in this news release that is not current or historical factual information may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of securities laws. Implicit in this information, particularly in respect of the future outlook of PHM and anticipated events or results, are assumptions based on beliefs of PHM’s senior management as well as information currently available to it. While these assumptions were considered reasonable by PHM at the time of preparation, they may prove to be incorrect. Readers are cautioned that actual results are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including the availability of funds and resources to pursue operations, decline of reimbursement rates, dependence on few payors, possible new drug discoveries, a novel business model, dependence on key suppliers, granting of permits and licenses in a highly regulated business, competition, difficulty integrating newly acquired businesses, low profit market segments as well as general economic, market and business conditions, and could differ materially from what is currently expected. This press release refers non-GAAP and non-IFRS financial measures that do not have standardized meaning prescribed by GAAP or IFRS. PHM’s presentation of these financial measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. These financial measures are intended to provide additional information to investors concerning PHM’s performance.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Patient Home Monitoring Corp.
		Dennis Wilson
Corporate Affairs
investorinfo@myphm.com
		www.phmhometesting.com




Source: Patient Home Monitoring Corp.

Half of U.S. Fracking Companies Will Be Sold OR Dead This Year

Half of the 41 fracking companies operating in the U.S. will be dead or sold by year-end because of slashed spending by oil companies, an executive with Weatherford International Plc said.
There could be about 20 companies left that provide hydraulic fracturing services, Rob Fulks, pressure pumping marketing director at Weatherford, said in an interview Wednesday at the IHS CERAWeek conference in Houston. Demand for fracking, a production method that along with horizontal drilling spurred a boom in U.S. oil and natural gas output, has declined as customers leave wells uncompleted because of low prices.
There were 61 fracking service providers in the U.S., the world’s largest market, at the start of last year. Consolidation among bigger players began with Halliburton Co. announcing plans to buy Baker Hughes Inc. in November for $34.6 billion and C&J Energy Services Ltd. buying the pressure-pumping business of Nabors Industries Ltd.
Weatherford, which operates the fifth-largest fracking operation in the U.S., has been forced to cut costs “dramatically” in response to customer demand, Fulks said. The company has been able to negotiate price cuts from the mines that supply sand, which is used to prop open cracks in the rocks that allow hydrocarbons to flow.
Oil companies are cutting more than $100 billion in spending globally after prices fell. Frack pricing is expected to fall as much as 35 percent this year, according to PacWest, a unit of IHS Inc.
While many large private-equity firms are looking at fracking companies to buy, the spread between buyer and seller pricing is still too wide for now, Alex Robart, a principal at PacWest, said in an interview at CERAWeek.
Fulks declined to say whether Weatherford is seeking to acquire other fracking companies or their unused equipment.
“We go by and we see yards are locked up and the doors are closed he  said. “It’s not good for equipment to park anything, whether it’s an airplane, a frack pump or a car.”

The Dry Shipping Picture May Be Even Worse Than You Think

 

I want to recommend a new article on Seeking Alpha – the analysis shows our continuing belief this is a sector to watch NOT purchase.

Here is a sample from the article:

The supply glut continues to plague dry shipping –

. Too many ships are simply chasing too few cargoes. One Singapore broker bleakly stated, “The market is flat as a pancake. It’s going to be like this going forward – it’s hard to see a way out.” The rates, even despite the modest rise last week, continue to be below even operating costs for most ships especially for the large Capesize ships. Basic economics teaches us that should one day correct but when?

Chief Shipping Analyst at BIMCO, Peter Sands, stated last week,

“What we have seen in shipping in recent years and is going to experience more in future is the knock-on effect from China becoming a relatively more closed economy, driven forward by domestic demand rather the foreign demand like i.e. the US. In short this translates into a lower level of shipping demand going forward than what we got accustomed to during the past decades”

Article link:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/3080826-why-the-dry-shipping-picture-may-be-even-worse-than-you-think?ifp=0&app=1

Trading Alert: PHM Moving – Another 52 Week High After Financing

 

 

Out top spec pick moved lower when a $58 million dollar bought deal ( at $1.50 this week) was announced. Investors digested that news and conluded that the money would propel the M&A strategy more than issuing stock to the target companies .The price jumped back from a decline to $1.60

 

We are now up 50 % from our initial buy-in and the NASDAQ listing it wants needs a $2.00 U.S. handle.

PATIENT HOME MONITORING CORP(PHM:TSXV, CA)

1.80CAD0.06(3.45%)Volume: 

Above Average

As of 16 Apr 2015 at 11:22 AM EDT.

 

QUOTE DETAILS

Open	1.79		P/E Ratio (TTM)	—
Last Bid/Size	1.79 / 2156		EPS (TTM)	-0.03
Last Ask/Size	1.80 / 282		Next Earnings	—
Previous Close	1.74		Beta	-0.21
Volume	2,930,211		Last Dividend	—
Average Volume	4,982,340		Dividend Yield	—
Day High	1.83		Ex-Dividend Date	—
Day Low	1.76		Shares Outstanding	231.8M
52 Week High	1.83		# of Floating Shares	210.4501M
52 Week Low	0.2200		Short Interest as % of Float	—
DRIP Eligible	No

 

COMPANY DESCRIPTION

Patient Home Monitoring Corp. is a healthcare company. The Company is engaged in providing in-home monitoring equipment, supplies and services to patients in the United States. The Company’s 100% equity subsidiaries include PHM DME Healthcare, Inc, Stancap Holdings I Limited, Patient Home Monitoring, Inc., PHM Health Management, Inc., Healthcare Logistics Corporation, Hollywood Healthcare Corporation, Resource Medical Group, LLC

 

Peter Hodson’s Research Tools

 

 

With an ever expanding suite of metrics and ratios available to retail investors, deciding how to size up a prospective position in a company has never been more complicated. But does it have to be?

Peter Hodson, the founder and CEO of 5I Research joined BNN Wednesday to discuss the five basic things he looks for when analyzing companies.

RETURN ON EQUITY

It’s the amount of net income returned as a percentage of shareholder equity. Basically, it’s a measure of how much money you are making from a company versus how much money you put in.

“A good number is 20 percent, but some of the great companies can come in with 45 or 50 percent which basically means they are exceptionally profitable and you are making a lot of money from what’s being put into the company. It’s my favourite ratio by far,” said Hodson.

COMPANY GROWTH VERSUS INDUSTRY GROWTH

When a company is growing faster than its peers, you have a sure fire sign that something good is going on. It could be anything from a better product, to a faster growing consumer base, to better sales people. It doesn’t really matter, growth is growth.

“Magna International (MG.TO -0.13%) recently had a profit growth of 13 percent and volume growth of about the same versus the auto industry as a whole, which is growing at three or four percent. They are multiples better than the industry right now,” said Hodson.

PERFORMANCE DURING THE RECESSION

How a company weathers tough times says a lot about its fundamentals. Chances are if it fought its way through the worst economic conditions seen in a generation, it will continue to do reasonable well in more prosperous times.

“Priceline.com (PCLN-O) tripled their profits in the middle of the financial crisis. It’s a travel company and nobody was travelling,” said Hodson.

STOCK OWNERSHIP BY MANAGEMENT

It’s a good show of faith if the executives have some real skin in the game – not stock options – actual positions that show they believe in the company. If they drop the ball, you want them to hurt as bad as their shareholders.

“Constellation Software Inc. (CSU.TO 3.38%), it’s one of the best performing stocks on the TSX. The CEO owns about $360 million worth of stock and the executives are forced to put some of their bonuses into stock, not options, just pure stock. They are on the line with investors as well,” said Hodson.

MANAGEMENT’S ABILITY TO EXECUTE

Has the company met analyst expectation? Have they hit that mark consistently? Look for companies that regularly beat the street. It sounds simple, but that’s why Hodson likes it.

“What we look for is momentum, a company that can under promise and over deliver,” said Hodson.

 

 

Ten Percent of S&P 500 Companies Avoid Paying U.S. Taxes

“What you’re seeing, is what could be called self-help tax reform.”

When it comes to taxes, corporate America is getting a bit less corporate. And a bit less American.

Fueled by a wave of inversions, a record 54 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of leading U.S. firms are now at least partially exempt from the corporate income tax. That’s more than twice the number four years ago.

The biggest factor is the recent wave of companies, such as Medtronic Plc and Mylan NV, that have completed what’s known as an inversion, in which they move their tax address overseas. Other companies have declared themselves to be real estate investment trusts, or REITs, which the Internal Revenue Service doesn’t treat as corporations. Just this year, Equinix Inc., a California company that operates data centers, became a REIT to lower its effective tax rate to as little as 10 percent. At 35 percent, the U.S. corporate rate is The Highest in the developed world.

The Congressional Budget Office predicted in January that these techniques, by eroding the tax base, would contribute to a drop in U.S. corporate receipts, from 2.3 percent of gross domestic product in 2016 to 1.8 percent in 2025. By then, receipts will be about 5 percent, or $27 billion a year, lower than they would be without the anticipated erosion, the CBO estimates.

“As capital gets increasingly mobile, it’s harder to stop people from pursuing tax advantages around the world,” said William Gale, an economist at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Popular Alternative

The S&P figures may understate the scale of the exodus, because the index doesn’t include another investment vehicle that’s become a popular alternative to the corporate form. Known as master limited partnerships, they, like REITS, don’t pay the corporate income tax and instead pass on tax liability to their investors. Several S&P companies have recently transferred assets to these vehicles.

“You can’t ignore the fact that the U.S. has been sitting still with its tax code for a long time,” said an economist at the Washington-based Tax Foundation, which favors a simpler system with lower rates. He said that other developed countries have reduced rates and made changes to favor domestic companies.

Many of the companies that undertook inversions or became REITS have argued that they have a duty to shareholders to legally minimize their tax bills. Some came to the decision after facing competition from rivals with more favorable tax arrangements.

New Restrictions

“Unfortunately we have a tax structure in the United States that’s putting companies in the U.S. at a disadvantage,” said the chairman of Actavis Plc, Paul Bisaro, shortly before it became Irish in 2013.

Last September, reacting to a series of high-profile inversions, the Treasury Department imposed new restrictions  meant to make it less attractive for U.S. firms to claim tax residence in a lower-tax jurisdiction. The changes killed three planned transactions, and since then the pace of announcements has slowed.

In the seven months since the rules took effect, only four new inversion plans have been unveiled, compared with eight in the seven months beforehand. Still, the new pace of about one announcement every two months is similar to that seen in 2012 and 2013. S&P 500 company Applied Materials Inc. plans to become Dutch by the end of June.

S&P Debate

Other paths to a foreign address are still open. James River Group Holdings Ltd., an insurance company with North Carolina roots, went public on the Nasdaq Stock Market in December as a Bermuda company. James River, which is not in the S&P, got the new address through its 2007 sale to a Bermuda entity set up by the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw & Co., a type of transaction that’s not affected by anti-inversion rules.

Since the S&P 500 is supposed to be a list of the biggest American companies, the question of whether to include tax expatriates has in the past caused some debate within S&P, the division of McGraw Hill Financial Inc. that oversees the index.

Thanks to an earlier wave of inversions, by 2008 there were 13 foreign-domiciled companies in the S&P 500. After some investors complained these companies didn’t belong, S&P kicked most of them out in 2009, said David Blitzer, chairman of the S&P index committee.

S&P reversed course after talking with more investors, he said. Fund managers don’t care what a company’s legal address is, as long as it has substantial business in the U.S., is listed on a U.S. exchange, and reports financial results the way U.S. companies do, Blitzer said. Most companies that invert don’t shift their top managers, factories or sales force out of the country. It’s mostly a paperwork change.

REIT Trend

So in 2010, S&P started letting them back in. Today there are 30 companies with foreign incorporations, representing about 5 percent of the index by market value.

Real estate companies have long organized themselves as REITs because they don’t have to pay tax on income as long as most of it comes from real estate and is paid out promptly to stockholders. REITs have been allowed to join the S&P 500 since 2001.

Recently, members of industries, from prisons to billboards, have sought to reap the tax benefits of being a REIT by declaring that they’re essentially in the real-estate business. For the most part, the Internal Revenue Service has allowed them to do so.

Tax Reform

Among those S&P 500 components that have made the switch in recent years include Iron Mountain Inc., a document storage company; the Weyerhaeuser Co. timber producer, and two owners of cell-phone towers. Railroads and power lines may be among the next industries to try it, said PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Virtually all of the foreign and REIT companies in the S&P 500 still pay some U.S. corporate income taxes. The foreign companies still have to pay through their U.S. subsidiaries, and REITs have to pay through units that aren’t in the real-estate business. Mylan, which got a Dutch incorporation in February, expects to lower its effective tax rate this year from 25 percent to 20 percent, its chief financial officer said at a conference last month.

“What you’re seeing,” said Jack A. Bass, tax strategist “is what could be called self-help tax reform.”

Read more on reducing your taxes at http://www.youroffshoremoney.com

Tanker Industry Review : The Market Realist

 

 

I want to recommned a great series of articles on the Tanker/ Shipping sector  from The Market Realist  www.market realist.com

 

here is a sample

 

The Dynamics of the Crude Tanker Industry
By Katie Dale • Apr 1, 2015 2:38 pm EDT
Oil prices impact crude industry

A February rebound in oil prices couldn’t hold on, and prices resumed their downward trend amid concerns over rising commercial crude stocks in the United States. Since late 2014, stocks have been increasing despite a falling number of oil rigs drilling in the United States.

Brent crude is trading at $55.11 as of March 24, 2014, down 7.3% from the previous month’s levels. Industry analysts believe that with falling oil prices, a crude tanker boom, albeit a short-lived one, surely exists.
Crude industry
Enlarge Graph
The performance of oil tanker operators such as Nordic American Tanker (NAT), Capital Products Partners L.P. (CPLP), Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd. (TNP), Frontline Ltd. (FRO), and Teekay Tankers Ltd. (TNK) have a direct correlation with the crude tanker industry. The PowerShares DB Oil Fund (DBO) is an industry ETF that tracks the performance of crude oil.

Dynamics of the crude tanker industry

In the current shipping industry, the tanker market is on the greener side compared to the dry bulk market recovery. Teekay Tankers commented in its 4Q14 quarterly update, “The outlook for crude tanker fleet utilization and spot tanker rates is expected to remain positive in 2015 based on a shrinking mid-size crude tanker fleet and a continued increase in long-haul tanker demand as more crude oil moves from the Atlantic to Pacific basins. The impact of low prices and the development of floating storage in the first quarter of 2015 are also expected to support positive tanker demand in the first half of 2015.”

What’s in this series?

In this series, we’ll look at the factors that drive the crude tanker industry and affect the performance of tanker companies. Before we begin the important indicators, we’ll look at the Baltic Dirty Tanker Index. Among indicators, we’ll take a look at China’s crude imports and auto sales, Canadian crude exports to the United States, and others.

CPLP $9.90 $0.02 0.20%
DBO $14.00 $0.01 0.07%
FRO $2.84 $0.21 7.99%
NAT $12.60 $0.10 0.80%
TNP $8.97 $0.06 0.67%

 

PART 2

Crude Tanker Indicators Amid Fluctuating Oil Prices (Part 2 of 10)
Baltic Dirty Tanker Index on the Decline
By Katie Dale • Apr 1, 2015 2:39 pm EDT
Baltic Dirty Tanker Index

The Baltic Dirty Tanker Index is followed by analysts and money managers in order to assess the revenue and earnings potential of the crude oil shipping industry. How the Baltic Dirty Tanker Index performs, especially its year-over-year growth, is one factor that has significant implications for companies such as DHT Holdings Inc. (DHT), Frontline Ltd. (FRO), Teekay Tankers Ltd. (TNK), and Nordic American Tanker Ltd. (NAT). The PowerShares DB Oil Fund (DBO) is an industry ETF that tracks the performance of crude oil.
Baltic dirty index
Enlarge Graph
On a year-to-date basis, the Baltic Dirty Tanker Index declined 13.1% to 769 on March 20, 2015. On a year-over-year basis, the index recorded an 8.2% increase.

Oilpatch Casualties : Price War Enters The ‘Market Death’ Phase

The “market death” phase of the oil downcycle is about to commence as margins of many producers are starting to dry up, according to an energy analyst.

Claudia Cattaneo: With the Canadian dollar depressed and share prices of some companies at bargain levels, the odds are high that well-known Canadian names will disappear.

“We are in the midst of a price war and one of the key elements of a price war is that producers start to raise production to elbow out the competition,” Peter Tertzakian, chief energy economist and managing director of ARC Financial Resources told a business audience at a conference in Toronto Thursday.

Last November, Saudi Arabia and OPEC allies decided to maintain output despite falling oil prices, triggering a global oil war that has seen prices cut in half.

“First thing you do [in a price war], is you crank up capacity. You have to pay the bills, employees and banks. You crank it up, till you can’t crank it up anymore.
Until you hit Phase 2, ‘Market Death’, which sounds very ominous. Market death is when some of the participants can no longer produce and start dropping out. It’s starting to happen, not enough yet.”

We are still in the first phase, with market death about to occur.

“And at some point there is capitulation. I would argue that it is coming in the third and fourth quarter, but it could drag on for a year,” Tertzakian said.

The OPEC meeting in June is unlikely to see the Saudis retreat from their determined position of raising production and gaining greater market share at the expense of their competitors.

“I don’t think they [the Saudis] would have felt that enough market death has happened yet. The objective in price wars is to put the weak out of business.”

The silver lining for Canadian and U.S. producers is that tight oil is more responsive and nimble compared to the inelastic conventional global supplies. This is evident from the financings of Canadian oil producers, which have been almost at the same pace as the first quarter of 2014.

“Light oil is going to be winner in the global price wars and the investor sentiment shows that. But the money is going to be very selective and backing winners – perceived winners.”

“The longer [low oil prices] persist, the more you will see companies’ financial situation become more precarious, and potentially looking at being acquired as the best outcome,” said Scott Sharabura, associate principal at McKinsey & Co.’s Calgary office.

At the same time, their businesses remain attractive, he said. “Everything about the logic of investing in Canada — lots of reserves, a safe environment from a geopolitical perspective, low risk, lots of long-term investment potential — still holds.”

Among the larger companies, oil sands producer Cenovus Energy Inc. and oil and gas producer Encana Corp. saw the steepest stock price declines since the beginning of the year. Cenovus issued $1.5 billion and Encana $1.4 billion in equity to soothe the bite of low oil prices. But Cenovus still has a $1.3 billion “funding gap” and Encana is digesting acquisitions it made at high prices as part of its transformation to become a balanced oil and gas producer before oil collapsed.

Penn West Exploration Ltd. is among those struggling with high debt and has been in discussions to ease terms.

“Companies will doubtless feel the squeeze as time goes by and Q2 2015 will inevitably be a time when we see an increase in distressed sales as debt-laden companies have their hands forced by the need to furnish debt,” Eoin Coyne, of research firm Evaluate Energy, said in a report Wednesday.

The most talked about potential acquirers are Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and Suncor Energy Inc., which saw the largest stock price increases over the same period.

Canadian Natural has been acquisitive throughout its history, particularly when industry conditions are weak. Suncor became acquisitive in the last oil price crash, when it purchased PetroCanada.

Husky Energy Inc., whose stock has been relatively stable, has signalled it has appetite for a “transformational” deal.

But global companies are also likely on the hunt, and in some cases have the benefit of stronger currencies and deeper pockets. In addition to Shell, Petronas, ExxonMobil Corp., Chevron Corp., BP PLC, PetroChina, ENI, Total S.A, Lukoil and Statoil ASA have the financial capacity to make acquisitions, according to Evaluate Energy. With the exception of Lukoil, all have operations in Canada. The Shell-BG merger could push others to do their own deal to keep up, or because by eliminating competition they can reduce costs.

The 1998 oil crash pushed Exxon to purchase Mobil, and BP to acquire Amoco. Chevron later scooped up Texaco Inc. and Conoco took out Phillips.

Big Oil’s Push to Replace Coal : Coal Mining and Shipping Sectors At Risk

BP Plc coined the slogan “Beyond Petroleum.” The new industry mantra might be “Beyond Oil and Into Gas.” Oh, and while we’re at it, “Down With Coal.”

Consider Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s recent $70 billion acquisition of BG Group Plc — clearly a huge bet that natural gas will prove to be its cash cow of the future.

The petroleum industry’s move toward gas is hardly new — the hydraulic fracturing shale revolution is in its second decade, after all. Still, Shell’s move is an emphatic confirmation that some among the Big Oil family firmly believe gas will play a growing role in meeting the energy demand of emerging countries such as China and India that are trying to move away from dirtier coal.

“Gas will likely overtake coal as the world’s second fuel by the late 2020s,” said Jonathan Stern, head of the natural gas program at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

Gas is emerging as a preferred fuel around the world because it’s cleaner to burn than coal and oil, prompting the International Energy Agency to say in 2011 that the world was entering into the “golden age of gas.” In a highly symbolic move, China announced last month it would convert the last of four major coal-fired power plants around Beijing to gas next year.

Last September, in a petroleum industry meeting timed to a United Nations session on global warming, some of the world’s leading producers got up to argue that gas gave them a huge advantage over coal in the climate-change battle, according to the website Responding to Climate Change.

“One of our most important contributions is producing natural gas and replacing coal in electricity production,” said Helge Lund, then chief executive officer of Statoil ASA, citing figures that switching from coal to gas could halve global emissions.

Fast Growing

Until recently, coal was the world’s fastest-growing major energy source, averaging a 5 percent annual rate. The Paris-based IEA forecast the rate would slow down to 1 percent from 2012 to 2020, and decelerate further to 0.3 percent in the 2020s as China and other emerging countries battle pollution.

Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said in February that “a shift from coal to natural gas” was needed to battle climate change. “When burnt for power, gas produces half the CO2 coal does,” he told an industry audience.

For Shell, this is the second gas-focused deal in so many years. In early 2014, it bought the liquefied natural gas business of Spain’s Repsol SA for $4.1 billion. The Anglo-Dutch group is not alone betting on gas: Chevron Corp., BP, Total SA and Exxon Mobil Corp. are spending heavily on the fuel.

Gas Focused

Trevor Sikorski, head of natural gas, coal and carbon for consultant Energy Aspects Ltd., said companies were “starting to recognize” a trend in emerging markets in favor of gas and against coal. “This deal potentially kicks off acquisitions of other gas-focused companies the size of BG or maybe smaller,” he said. Among the potential candidates, analysts are looking at Woodside Petroleum Ltd. and Santos Ltd. of Australia, U.S.-based Devon Energy Corp. and Noble Energy Inc., among others.

The bet on gas has been extremely profitable so far for Shell. The company reported underlying earnings of $10.4 billion in 2014 from gas, up 470 percent in five years.

But it has its risk, nonetheless. First, LNG prices have dropped about a quarter from the torrid levels reached after Japan bought large quantities of the fuel following the 2011 nuclear crisis of Fukushima. The price drop will hurt profits.

Coal Prices

At the same time, coal prices have fallen to levels not seen since the global financial crisis, providing cost-sensitive countries, including India, a strong reason to keep buying. BP CEO Bob Dudley last June warned that with coal prices falling, the commodity was “extending its competitive edge in power generation” over gas.

Second, the shift from coal into gas depends in a great part on climate change negotiations of uncertain outcome.

And third, analysts worry that energy companies would struggle to keep construction costs under control, jeopardizing the future of the LNG sector.

If Big Oil is successful in its push toward gas at the expense of coal, those most at risk will likely be global mining groups including Glencore Plc, Anglo American Plc and Rio Tinto Group with billions of dollars in coal deposits in South Africa, Australia and Colombia.

Trading Alert : PHM at 52 week high on volume Press Release Update

This never gets old – still our top spec pick

 

Patient Home Monitoring (PHM) Announces Another Record of Quarterly Revenue and Profits

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA–(Marketwired – April 9, 2015) –

 

NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OF THE SECURITIES DESCRIBED HEREIN

Patient Home Monitoring (PHM) (TSX VENTURE:PHM), a profitable, acquisition-oriented company focused on providing annuity-based healthcare products and services to patients in the home throughout the US, today announced highlights of its Fiscal Year 2015 second quarter revenues and profits in advance of a presentation to capital market participants in Montreal to accept the award for being a 2015 TSX Venture 50 company and the top company in the Technology & Life Sciences category.

 

Financial highlights for the quarter ending March 31, 2015:

 

Revenues:

Total quarterly revenues exceeded $13,000,000; an increase of 28% from the previous quarter and 255% from the quarter a year ago.

March 2015 revenues exceeded $5,000,000, translating to an annualized revenue run rate in excess of $60,000,000.

 

Revenue Growth:

Inorganic quarterly revenue growth was approximately $1,800,000.

• 2 months of Black Bear Medical (reported unaudited annualized revenues of $8,500,000 or approximately $700,000 monthly).
• 1 month of West Home Health (reported unaudited annualized revenues of $5,500,000 or $450,000 monthly).

Organic quarterly revenue growth was approximately $1,100,000, an annualized organic revenue growth rate in excess of 40%.

 

Profitability:

• Adjusted EBITDA⁽¹⁾exceeded $2,850,000; an increase of 20.3% from the previous quarter and 259% from the same quarter a year ago.
• Net profit before stock-based compensation⁽²⁾exceeded $1,600,000; an increase of 23.5% from the previous quarter.
• Annualized Adjusted EBITDA run rate in excess of $11,400,000.

 

PHM continues to build its pipeline of qualified acquisition targets:

• 152 qualified targets in initial contact phase.
• 16 active targets in initial due diligence.
• 8 term sheets in negotiation.
• 2 additional LOI’s pending signature from seller.
• 4 LOI’s executed – 2 expected to close this quarter.
• 2 large acquisition targets with revenues in excess $40 million

PHM is rolling-up a large and fragmented market of small, profitable businesses providing healthcare products and services to chronically ill patients. The companies are acquired for their technical and market expertise in certain product and service lines, as well as their patient databases. Once acquired, PHM works to offer these newly acquired services to its entire patient base, thereby increasing revenue per patient and achieving organic post acquisition revenue growth and profits.

 

“This quarter we had both impressive organic revenue growth and additional revenues from acquisitions,” said Michael Dalsin, Chairman of PHM. “While we didn’t have the full impact of both acquisitions this quarter, we were still able to generate better than expected revenue growth. Next quarter, we will get the full impact of these acquisitions, along with additional cross selling revenue as our management team integrates the businesses.”

“In terms of our M&A pipeline, I do expect that we will close our four outstanding LOIs quite soon,” continued Mr. Dalsin. “Since adding to our M&A staff, we have built a very large pipeline which, in my experience, should give us the ability to pick the very best deals. We continue to work with the larger acquisition targets to finalize deal terms and I am cautiously optimistic that we may land a larger deal soon as well. We will continue to focus on our large and growing pipeline of deals to ensure we can achieve our year end run rate revenue goal.”

As in the case of other quarterly financial results, the foregoing figures are unaudited. Full financial results from this quarter will be available on SEDAR expected before their due date of June 1, 2015.

 

About PHM

 

PHM is an acquisition-oriented, fast-growing and profitable company servicing patients with heart disease and other chronic health conditions. PHM is focused on acquiring companies in a highly fragmented and developing market of small privately-held companies servicing chronically ill patients with multiple disease states caused mainly by age and obesity. Because of the new and highly fragmented nature of the market, PHM is actively identifying and evaluating profitable, annuity-based companies to acquire at favorable prices for their patient databases and technical expertise. PHM’s post-acquisition organic growth strategy is to increase annual revenue per patient by offering multiple services to the same patient, consolidating the patient’s services and making life easier for the patient. The expected result is growing EPS with each acquisition and growing revenue and profits from the cross selling efforts.

 

 

 

PATIENT HOME MONITORING CORP(PHM:TSXV, CA)

1.62CAD0.05(3.18%)Volume: 

Average

As of 09 Apr 2015 at 11:04 AM EDT.

QUOTE DETAILS

Printable VersionShow Me

Open	1.60		P/E Ratio (TTM)	—
Last Bid/Size	1.61 / 1266		EPS (TTM)	-0.03
Last Ask/Size	1.62 / 1127		Next Earnings	—
Previous Close	1.57		Beta	-0.26
Volume	1,364,909		Last Dividend	—
Average Volume	4,486,840		Dividend Yield	—
Day High	1.62		Ex-Dividend Date	—
Day Low	1.58		Shares Outstanding	231.8M
52 Week High	1.62		# of Floating Shares	191.2059M
52 Week Low	0.2200		Short Interest as % of Float	—
DRIP Eligible	No

5 day chart