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The 2014 All-America Research Team: Electric Utilities, No. 2: Julien Dumoulin-Smith
Total appearances: 1
Team debut: 2014
Newcomer Julien Dumoulin-Smith is no stranger to the buy side: From 2010 to 2012, investors deemed the UBS analyst a Rising Star of Wall Street Research. “Julien’s unbounded passion for the space is evidenced by the amount of high-quality research he produces,” applauds one admirer. “He goes the extra mile.” Dumoulin-Smith believes that increasing infrastructure investment represents a prime opportunity for U.S. electric utilities across the industry. One big player in the midstream build-out is Richmond, Virginia–based Dominion Resources, which the researcher recommends buying. Dominion has the chance to translate its proposed master limited partnership (which would include liquefied-natural-gas import and export terminals) “into real earnings growth back at the parent, ultimately leading to acceleration in its earnings-per-share growth profile, relative to investors’ expectations,” he explains. By the same token, Juno Beach, Florida’s NextEra Energy, the biggest U.S. operator of wind turbines, can “raise earnings-per-share guidance relative to consensus and relative to what they’ve already announced, on the back of what is an accelerating outlook for renewable build,” notes Dumoulin-Smith. In addition, to support its earnings expansion, the utility is diversifying into a range of other infrastructure investments, such as gas midstream and direct ownership of exploration and production assets, to support its earnings expansion, he says.