Helen Sapro

Headquartered in Houston, TX, ConocoPhillips is primarily involved in the exploration and production of oil and natural gas. Considering proved reserves and production, the company is the largest explorer and producer in the world. The company, founded in 1875, has strong presence across conventional and unconventional plays in 16 countries. ConocoPhillips’ low risk and cost-effective operations spread across North America, Asia, Australia and Europe. The upstream energy player also has foothold in Canada’s oil sand resources and has exposure to developments related to liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The company ended 2020 with proved reserves of around 4.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) and a reserve replacement ratio of 86%. Through 2020, the upstream energy player produced 1,127 thousand BOE per day, comprising more than 50.4% oil.

ConocoPhillips is strongly dedicated to returning cash to shareholders through dividend payments and share buybacks. In 2020, the company paid dividend of $1.8 billion and repurchased $900 million worth of shares. The company has approval from the board of directors to buy back a total of $25 billion of common stock. On top of that, ConocoPhillips has achieved a strong balance sheet by lowering debt burden, months ahead of plan.

As coronavirus-induced lockdowns are being withdrawn from major economies, ConocoPhillips has announced a capital budget for 2021 of $5.5 billion, higher than the 2020 level of around $4.7 billion. The total amount incorporates $5.1 billion that will be used to sustain the current production level and $400 million for growth project investments. Markedly, it resumed share repurchase program of $1.5 billion per annum, following a several-month hiatus. It can use the cash available on the balance sheet to fund the stock buybacks. Earlier, it slowed down the pace of the 2020 stock buy-back program due to market uncertainties.

Rattler Midstream LP owns, operates, develops and acquires midstream infrastructure assets primarily in the Midland and Delaware Basins of the Permian Basin. It provides crude oil, natural gas and water-related midstream services. Rattler Midstream LP is based in Austin, United States.

Findlay, OH-based Marathon Petroleum Corporation is a leading independent refiner, transporter and marketer of petroleum products. The company, in its current form, came into existence following the 2011 spin-off of Houston, TX-based Marathon Oil Corporation’s refining/sales business into a separate, independent and publicly-traded entity. In October 2018, Marathon Oil completed the acquisition of its rival Andeavor in a $23.3 billion deal, thereby becoming the nationwide largest refining company by market capitalization. The deal also made the company the largest U.S. refiner and the fifth largest in the world by capacity.

Marathon Petroleum operates in two segments: Refining and Marketing and Pipeline Transportation.

Refining and Marketing: The unit’s operations include 16 refineries, located in the West Coast, Gulf Coast and the Mid-Continent regions of the United States, having a combined crude processing capacity of more than 3 million barrels per day. Additionally, Marathon Petroleum – through its marketing organization – sells transportation fuels, asphalt and specialty products throughout the country to support commercial, industrial and retail operations. In 2021, the Refining & Marketing segment recorded a profit of $1 billion.

Midstream: This unit mainly reflects Marathon Petroleum’s general partner and majority limited partner interests in MPLX LP and Andeavor Logistics LP - publicly-traded master limited partnerships that own and operate gathering and processing assets along with crude transportation and logistics infrastructure. Marathon Petroleum owns 63.6% each of MPLX’s and ANDX’s common units. The 'Midstream' segment reported total earnings of $4.1 billion in 2021.

Last year, Marathon Petroleum sold its Speedway business to Japanese retail group Seven & i Holdings – owner of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain – for $21 billion.

As of Dec 31, the company had cash and cash equivalents of $5.3 billion and a total debt, including that of MPLX, of $25.5 billion.

Chevron is one of the largest publicly traded oil and gas companies in the world with operations that span almost every corner of the globe. The only energy component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, San Ramon, CA-based Chevron is fully integrated, meaning it participates in every aspect related to energy – from oil production, to refining and marketing. The company generates around $95 billion in annual revenues and produces in excess of three million barrels per day of oil equivalent. Chevron currently churns out oil and natural gas at a 59/41 ratio. As of the end of 2021, the company had proved reserves of approximately 12.4 billion barrels of oil-equivalent.

The energy sector's revival from the pandemic-induced lows have significantly buoyed Chevron’s stock price and it is currently the 22-largest company in the S&P 500 Index. With its relatively low-risk energy business structure, robust financial health, and ample free cash flows, Chevron remains well positioned to navigate the volatility in oil and gas prices.

Being an integrated firm engaged in all aspects of the oil and gas business, Chevron often finds itself in the crossfire of political debates over climate change policy. Notwithstanding these distractions, Chevron has improved its cash from operations, allowing management to raise the dividend regularly. One of only two energy stocks on the list of Dividend Aristocrats, the supermajor’s balance sheet is reasonably healthy indicating that the dividend should remain safe going forward.

Chevron has a market cap of more than $250 billion and divides its operations into two main segments: Upstream (exploration & production) and Downstream (refining). In 2021, the Upstream unit reported a profit of $15.8 billion, while the Downstream segment generated earnings of $2.9 billion. Chevron’s other activities include transportation (pipelines, shipping) and chemicals (handled by Chevron Phillips Chemicals Company, a 50/50 joint venture with partner Phillips 66). Chevron’s current oil and gas development project pipeline is among the best in the industry - projected to grow its output by up to 2-5% this year (excluding contract expirations and asset sales). This production growth will primarily come from Chevron’s showpiece Permian Basin assets, where it has substantial holdings of 2.2 million net acres.

Founded in 2002 and headquartered in San Mateo, CA, GoPro is one of the leading manufacturers of the world's most handy camera and enabler of some of today's most immersive and engaging content. The company made its initial public offering in June 2014. GoPro manufactures mountable and wearable capture devices such as action cameras and related accessories. Its core product is the HERO line of capture devices, which was initially launched in 2009.

The company offers cloud connected HERO7 Silver, HERO7 Black, and HERO8 Black waterproof cameras, and MAX, a 360-degree waterproof camera, GoPro Plus, a cloud-based storage solution that enables subscribers to access, edit, and share content. It also offers mounts and accessories comprising equipment-based mounts consisting of helmet, handlebar, roll bar, and tripod mounts that enable consumers to wear the mount on their bodies, such as wrist housings, chest harnesses, and head straps. In addition, GoPro provides advanced software solutions to enhance its core offerings such as GoPro Studio, GoPro App, among others. The GoPro App aids consumers to effortlessly and wirelessly manage and share content from their capture devices. The GoPro Studio enables customers to edit and share simple and complex videos.

GoPro follows both Gopro.com and Retail channel for selling its products. The GoPro.com channel (29.8% of total revenues in third-quarter 2021) comprises its website and various types of specialty retailers. The company uses the retail channel (70.2%) to expand the reach of its offerings throughout national and international markets as well as in several specialty markets. GoPro operates through wholly owned subsidiaries in Germany, Hong Kong, the Netherlands and the Cayman Islands.

Aperam S.A. is a manufacturer and marketer of stainless steel primarily in South America and Europe. The company produce grain oriented and non-grain oriented electrical steels and nickel alloys. Aperam S.A. is headquartered in Luxembourg.

Headquartered in Charlotte, NC, Nucor Corporation is a leading producer of structural steel, steel bars, steel joists, steel deck and cold finished bars in the United States. It also produces direct reduced iron (“DRI”) that is used in its steel mills. The company has 123 operating facilities, primarily in the United States and Canada. Also, most of its operating facilities and customers are located in North America.

Over the years, the company has grown through acquisitions as well as by tapping new markets and expanding geographically. Through its network of “mini-mills”, the company produces steel sheets, bars, plates as well as various structural and other products. Nucor, in 2014, completed the acquisition of Gallatin Steel Company from global steel giant ArcelorMittal and Brazilian steel maker Gerdau for roughly $770 million in cash. Notably, the company is North America’s largest recycler, which uses scrap steel as the primary raw material in producing steel and steel products.

Nucor operates in three segments – the Steel Mills segment (25.7 million shipments in 2021), the Steel Products segment and the Raw Materials segment. The Steel Mills segment manufactures hot rolled steel products such as angles, rounds, flats, channels, rebar, sheets, wide-flange beams, pilings, billets, blooms, beam blanks, and plates; and cold-rolled steel products. The Steel Products segment makes steel joists and joist girders, steel deck, cold finished steel, steel fasteners, metal building systems and light gauge steel framing among other products. The Raw Materials segment produces direct reduced iron, ferrous and nonferrous metals, and pig iron; ferro-alloys; and processes ferrous and nonferrous scrap from the facility in Trinidad.

Nucor sells its hot-rolled steel and cold-rolled steel to steel service centers, fabricators, and manufacturers; steel joists and joist girders, and steel deck to general contractors and fabricators; and cold finished steel and steel fasteners to distributors and manufacturers. Its steel products are used in highways, bridges, reservoirs, utilities, hospitals, schools, airports, stadiums and high-rise buildings.

Houston, TX-based Schlumberger Limited is a leading oilfield services company, providing services to the oil and gas explorers, and producers across the world. Through oilfield services contracts, Schlumberger helps the upstream energy players to locate oil and gas, and to drill and evaluate hydrocarbon wells. The company, founded in 1926, also supports the explorers to construct oil and gas wells and produce optimum volumes of the commodities from the existing wells.

Since the beginning of 2020, the coronavirus pandemic has been affecting the broader energy market. Upstream energy companies have lowered capital spending to sail through the pandemic induced lower oil pricing scenario. This, turn has slashed demand for oilfield services since the oilfield service players assists upstream firms to efficiently drill oil wells. Recently, Schlumberger announced that there has been an increase in optimism for fuel demand recovery in 2021, thanks to the rise in oil price owing to the rolling out of coronavirus vaccines and economic stimulus measures. Schlumberger added that it will take no later than 2023 for crude demand to rebound back to the pre-pandemic levels of 2019. This in turn will boost oilfield services and activities in North America and international markets.

Broadcom is a premier designer, developer and global supplier of a broad range of semiconductor devices with a focus on complex digital and mixed signal complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) based devices and analog III-V based products.

Headquartered in San Jose, CA, Broadcom’s semiconductor solutions are used in end products such as enterprise and data center networking, home connectivity, set-top boxes, broadband access, telecommunication equipment, smartphones and base stations, data center servers and storage systems, factory automation, power generation and alternative energy systems, and electronic displays.

Broadcom’s infrastructure software solutions enable customers to plan, develop, automate, manage, and secure applications across mainframe, distributed, mobile, and cloud platforms. The company’s Symantec cyber security solutions portfolio, include endpoint, network, information and identity security solutions.

Broadcom also offer mission critical fibre channel storage area networking (“FC SAN”) products and related software in the form of modules, switches and subsystems incorporating multiple semiconductor products.

Broadcom has been aggressively pursuing strategic acquisitions to diversify end markets beyond semiconductors and has been looking to strengthen presence in the infrastructure software vertical particularly.

Broadcom reported revenues of $27.45 billion in fiscal 2021. The company has two reporting segments: Semiconductor solutions and Infrastructure software.

Semiconductor solutions accounted for 74.3% of fiscal 2021 revenues. Apart from Broadcom’s semiconductor solution product lines this segment includes IP licensing business.

Infrastructure software solutions accounted for 25.7% of fiscal 2021 revenues. The segment includes mainframe, BizOps, cyber security software solutions, and FC SAN businesses.

Broadcom faces stiff competition from Analog Devices, Cisco, Cree, Finisar, GlobalFoundries, Intel, Lumentum, MACOM, Marvell, Mediatek, NXP Semiconductors, Qorvo, Qualcomm, ON Semiconductor, Skyworks, Toshiba and Texas Instruments in the semiconductor solutions market.

In the infrastructure software market, it faces competition from Cisco, Atlassian, CrowdStrike, CyberArk, IBM, Microsoft, salesforce, Oracle, Splunk, VMware.

Colorado-based Newmont Corporation is one of the world's largest producers of gold with several active mines in Nevada, Peru, Australia and Ghana. As of Dec 31, 2020, Newmont had gold mineral reserves of more than 94 million ounces. Its attributable gold production for 2020 was 5.9 million ounces.

Newmont’s operating segments are North America, South America, Australia and Africa.

The North America segment (25% of 2020 gold production) has operations in Mexico (Penasquito), Canada (Eleonore, Musselwhite and Porcupine) and in the United States in both Colorado and Nevada. The South America segment (12%) is represented by operations in Suriname, Peru, Argentina and Dominican Republic. The Australia segment (20%) consists of Boddington and Tanami. Newmont fully owns and operates the Tanami mine. It also owns 100% of the Boddington mine. The Africa segment (14%) operations are represented by the fully-owned Ahafo and Akyem mines in Ghana.

The company closed the sale of its 48.5% ownership interest in PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (PTNNT), which operates the Batu Hijau copper and gold mine in Indonesia, to PT Amman Mineral Internasional (PTAMI) on Nov 2, 2016. The asset’s name is now changed to PT Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara (PTAMNT).

The company, in February 2014, completed the sale of its Midas underground operation and mill complex to Klondex Mines Ltd. The company, in March 2014, also sold its 5.4% equity interest in Paladin Energy Ltd. through a block sale deal with UBS Australia. Moreover, the company, in July 2014, completed the sale of its Jundee underground gold mine in Australia to Northern Star Resources for roughly $91 million. The company also completed the sale of its 44% stake in the Penmont joint venture in Mexico in October 2014 to Fresnillo plc for $477 million.

In January 2019, Newmont entered into a definitive deal with Goldcorp to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of the latter in a stock-for-stock transaction. The transaction was successfully closed on Apr 18, 2019. The deal provides the company an investment-grade balance sheet and financial flexibility to pursue promising projects.

Waste Management provides collection services that include picking up and transporting waste and recyclable materials from the point of generation to a transfer station, disposal site or material recovery facility (MRF).

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Waste Management Inc. is a leading provider of comprehensive waste management services in North America. The company provides collection, transfer, recycling and resource recovery, as well as disposal services to residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers. It is also a leading developer, operator and owner of waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States.

Waste Management provides collection services that include picking up and transporting waste and recyclable materials from the point of generation to a transfer station, disposal site or material recovery facility (MRF)