Topic: How To Invest

Dear Sir: I have been following CVR Refining LP for some time. Could you please tell me your opinion of it? The dividend is extremely large. Do you think it can be sustained? Thank you.

Article Excerpt

CVR Refining LP, $17.82, symbol CVRR on New York (Shares outstanding: 147.6 million; Market cap: $2.6 billion; www.cvrrefining.com), refines and markets fuels. The company operates a 115,000-barrel-a-day oil refinery in Kansas and another (70,000 barrels a day) in Oklahoma. CVR’s subsidiaries support these refineries with 540 kilometres of pipelines, more than 150 oil-transport trucks, a network of oil-gathering tanks and over six million barrels of owned and leased storage capacity. The company is majority owned and operated by CVR Energy, which itself is majority owned by activist investor Carl Icahn. CVR operates in a volatile industry. It has only two refineries, so it lacks diversification. Refiners face large risks, including unscheduled downtime and potentially large investments to meet regulatory and environmental regulations. The company stands to benefit from low oil prices because its refineries pay less for the crude they process. In theory, oil’s decline should result in lower gasoline prices over time, which would cut into the higher profit margins refineries are…