Subject: Re: o/t, I have been touting ADX and CET
KMI: if one purchases the stock today the dividend yield is 4.3%. I was buying in 2019-2020 and ended up with an average cost of $12.91. The company recently announced that it plans to pay a $1.19 per share dividend in 2026 which based on my cost is a 9.2% yield.

As far as KMI their business has a huge moat....extremely difficult to get approval/permits/etc. for pipelines and I've always viewed it as a "tollbooth" with no exploration risk. If the demand for energy increases then KMI's business will benefit. When the stock price was in the low teens I recall listening to the CC's and Rich Kinder was in disbelief about the valuation.

Bottom line is that I have owned it for 6 years and the price of the stock has more than doubled. Every quarter I receive the dividend payment and the dividend yield on my shares is now 9+% with the possibility of future increases. I'll take that outcome every time.

A quick tidbit about analyst downgrades. A few years back an analyst downgraded KMI citing their additional spending on future projects, etc. (per his logic investing in the business was a bad thing) and how earnings would be a few pennies short of what he expected. Amusingly enough following the downgrade the stock dropped around 5%. Those projects are now being completed and have been and will be increasing earnings. Occasionally an analyst will make sense (Mike Mayo was absolutely pounding the table on Citigroup) but as a general rule I don't pay much attention to them.