| ANNUALIZED SINCE INCEPTION | QUARTERLY | YTD |
|---|---|---|
| - | - |
Miller/Howard's Q4 2025 report highlights unprecedented market concentration with the top 10 S&P 500 holdings reaching 41%, surpassing the Tech Bubble peak. The Magnificent 7 have driven this concentration, accounting for 38% of S&P 500 returns over 10 years. Index reconstitutions have compromised style integrity by adding growth-oriented Mag 7 stocks to value indices, creating concentration risk within supposedly diversified portfolios. Active value managers have responded by increasing Mag 7 exposure from 2.3% to 7.2% median allocation. Miller/Howard maintains strict dividend focus, avoiding Mag 7 in income portfolios to preserve differentiation. The firm identifies nuclear power as an emerging opportunity, with US electricity demand expected to grow significantly driven by data centers and electrification. Small modular reactors offer promising technology with shorter development timelines, though regulatory and execution risks remain. Policy support includes ambitious targets to quadruple nuclear capacity by 2050, creating long-term investment opportunities in essential services.
Market concentration has reached dangerous levels with style indices compromising integrity by including growth-oriented Magnificent 7 stocks, creating opportunities for truly diversified dividend-focused strategies while nuclear power emerges as a compelling long-term investment theme.
Miller/Howard views nuclear power generation as an exciting and growing opportunity within essential services, while maintaining disciplined adherence to dividend-focused investment universes despite market concentration trends.
| Date | Letter | Tickers | Keywords | Pitches | Quick Takes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 24 2026 | 2025 Q4 | AAPL, AMZN, BAC, BRK-B, GOOG, GOOGL, JNJ, JPM, META, MSFT, NVDA, PG, TSLA, WMT, XOM | Concentration, dividends, Indices, Magnificent 7, nuclear, SMRs, value | - | The US is on the cusp of a nuclear renaissance driven by rising electricity demand, policy support, and emerging technologies like small modular reactors. Nuclear capacity could quadruple by 2050, though regulatory, economic, and execution risks remain significant challenges. Miller/Howard maintains strict dividend focus across portfolios, avoiding Magnificent 7 stocks in income-oriented strategies. The firm emphasizes high current income and growth of income as core differentiators in an increasingly concentrated market. Index reconstitutions have compromised style integrity by adding growth-oriented Magnificent 7 stocks to value indices. This creates concentration risk and challenges traditional value investing principles based on lower valuations and higher dividend yields. |
| Oct 19 2025 | 2025 Q3 | CAG, CCI, COP, NRG, TTE | cash flow, dividends, energy, income, infrastructure | - | The firm highlights broad-based income-oriented strategies focused on energy, infrastructure, and utilities, emphasizing dividend growth and capital discipline. Energy and infrastructure exposure provided resilient income generation amid a volatile macro backdrop. The strategy continues to target stable, high-yielding sectors with long-term cash flow visibility. |
| Jul 22 2025 | 2025 Q2 | - | Capital discipline, dividends, income, valuation, volatility | - | The firm-wide commentary reiterates income-focused investing as a compelling alternative to overvalued megacap growth stocks. Management contrasts the stability and predictability of dividends with the cyclicality of buybacks, especially during periods of economic stress. The strategy emphasizes total return generation through income, earnings growth, and valuation discipline. |
| Mar 31 2025 | 2025 Q1 | - | - | - | |
| Dec 31 2024 | 2024 Q4 | - | - | - | |
| Sep 30 2024 | 2024 Q3 | - | - | - |
| QUARTER | THEMES | TAGS |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 Q4 |
DividendsJapanese companies paid record dividends of ¥18 trillion for fiscal year ending March 2025, a 13.8% year-over-year increase. Many major firms have adopted progressive dividend policies guaranteeing dividends will never be cut, only maintained or increased. |
Progressive Dividend Record Payouts Shareholder Returns Yield Growth |
NuclearPosition in Uranium Energy as the largest licensed uranium miner in the U.S., positioned to benefit from renewed focus on nuclear power as long-term energy solution and U.S. efforts to strengthen domestic nuclear fuel supply chains for national security. |
Uranium Mining Nuclear Power Energy Security Domestic Supply National Security | |
ValueManager emphasizes investing in controlled companies trading at significant discounts to NAV, with European holding companies showing discounts of 30-68%. The strategy focuses on securities mispricing where real value exists, contrasting with overvalued technology stocks. |
Discounts NAV Mispricing Undervalued Controlled | |
| 2025 Q3 |
EnergyBHE operates regulated utilities serving 5.4 million customers and natural gas pipelines. The business faces significant investment needs driven by AI computing demand and wildfire risk mitigation, particularly in the Western U.S. |
Regulated Utilities Natural Gas Renewable Energy Grid Infrastructure |
InfrastructureDigital 9 Infrastructure holds telecom infrastructure assets including Arqiva stake. Despite poor 2025 performance, potential capital returns and asset sales could unlock value. Infrastructure assets provide defensive characteristics. |
Telecom Infrastructure Digital Infrastructure | |
| 2025 Q2 |
Income |
| Date | Pitch Type | Author | Ticker | Company | Industry | Sub Industry | Bull / Bear | Exchange | Keywords | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Elevator Pitches found | ||||||||||
| TICKER | COMMENTARY |
|---|---|
| AAPL | Apple Inc. represents 1.6% of company owned with cost basis of $6,255 million and market value of $61,962 million, providing $280 million in 2025 dividends. |
| AMZN | One company we own that we think has unique positioning to benefit from both the infrastructure and application layers is Amazon. Amazon's logistical prowess is one of the foremost moats in business today and it can and will be enhanced with AI. The company will do this in multiple ways, with better orchestration of its logistics assets and underlying cargo, as well as the buildout of more capable, sophisticated and robust robotics. Amazon is singularly well positioned to dominate the coordination layer, with AI's help, across its entire logistics network. |
| BAC | BAC, JNJ, JPM, and XOM were held in Miller/Howard portfolios as of December 31, 2025. |
| BRK-B | Our annual pilgrimage to Omaha was running according to plan until, as we headed to the airport while listening to the final moments of the annual shareholder's meeting, Buffett dropped the bombshell: he would step down as CEO at year-end. We believe the most important aspect of Berkshire—its culture—is likely to endure. Abel inherits Berkshire's massive $382 billion cash position and will likely allocate more capital than Warren and Charlie did over much of their investing careers. |
| GOOG | From the moment OpenAI hit the scene with ChatGPT 3.5 in the Fall of 2022, Google was a perceived loser and thousands of pontificators warned about the end of search. Fast forward three years and this was Google Search's fastest quarter of revenue growth since Q1 2022, when the reopening and pandemic were still considerable drivers of results. In parallel with the Search re-acceleration, Google has also emerged as a leader in AI itself. This combination has been potent for Google's stock and could not have opened on Search alone, given the terminal value fears. |
| GOOGL | In the third quarter, Google, Kairos Power, and the Tennessee Valley Authority announced a major collaboration centered on a novel power purchase agreement. Google followed this announcement with another significant step forward. On October 27, Google and NextEra Energy announced plans to restart the Duane Arnold Energy Center. |
| JNJ | During the quarter, we switched out of a long-held position in Johnson & Johnson into a new holding in Merck. |
| JPM | JPMorgan (JPM) has identified 42 AI-related stocks in the S&P 500, which today represent 45% of the index's market cap. They estimate that these stocks have accounted for 78% of S&P 500 returns, 66% of earnings growth, and 71% of capital spending growth since ChatGPT launched in November 2022. As it relates to the impact on the U.S. economy, JPM estimates tech sector capital spending contributed 40%-45% of U.S. GDP growth through the first 9 months of the year, up from less than 5% during the same period in 2023. |
| META | On January 9, Meta Platforms unveiled a new agreement with Vistra—the largest generator of competitive electricity in the United States—as well as with TerraPower and Oklo. The announcement builds on Meta's agreement last year with Constellation Energy and positions the company to become one of the largest corporate purchasers of nuclear-generated electricity in the United States. |
| MSFT | MSFT was a detractor in 4Q25 following its fiscal first-quarter 2026 earnings report released on October 29. While results were better than expected operationally, investor reaction was driven by guidance and capital expenditure intensity rather than headline performance. Revenue grew 17% year-over-year, exceeding consensus expectations, and Azure revenue increased 39% year-over-year, also ahead of estimates. However, management guided to a sequential deceleration in Azure growth in fiscal Q2, signaling some moderation after a period of exceptional demand. |
| NVDA | AI bellwether NVIDIA's very strong set of earnings in late November helped the AI theme re-assert its dominance when investors breathed a sigh of relief following the results. |
| PG | The multiples of technology stocks should be quite a bit lower than the multiples of stocks like Coke and Gillette |
| TSLA | Under the previous system, companies that produced only electric vehicles—most notably Tesla—generated large quantities of credits that could then be sold to manufacturers falling short of their EV production targets, allowing them to avoid regulatory penalties. |
| WMT | For insight into the real economy operating beneath this AI and data center boom, we must look elsewhere within the S&P 500, including bellwethers like Walmart |
| XOM | BAC, JNJ, JPM, and XOM were held in Miller/Howard portfolios as of December 31, 2025. |
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