Low payouts cut risk for these royalty trusts

Article Excerpt

Royalty trusts with natural gas exposure are mostly down lately, as higher North American production and lower oil prices have prompted natural gas prices to move down from their highs of $13.50 per million British thermal units in July, to $8.18 U.S. today. These three royalty trusts are cheap in relation to cash flow, based on the latest quarter. If natural gas and oil prices remain low, it would lower cash flow among royalty trusts — but these royalty trusts still have good value, even at lower cash flow levels. Moreover, all three royalty trusts pay out a relatively small percentage of their cash flow to unitholders, so the risk of a distribution cut is low if oil and gas prices drop further. ZARGON ENERGY TRUST $21.75 (Toronto symbol ZAR.UN; SI Rating: Speculative) (403-264- 9992; www.zargon.ca; Shares outstanding: 18.2 million; Market cap: $395.6 million) has oil and gas production assets in Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and North Dakota. Output is weighted 54% toward…