What is Piedmont Natural Gas Co Intangible Assets?
Intangible assets are defined as identifiable non-monetary assets that cannot be seen, touched or physically measured. Piedmont Natural Gas Co's intangible assets for the quarter that ended in Jul. 2016 was $49 Mil.
Piedmont Natural Gas Co Intangible Assets Historical Data
The historical data trend for Piedmont Natural Gas Co's Intangible Assets can be seen below:
* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD. * For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.
Piedmont Natural Gas Co Intangible Assets Calculation
Intangible assets are defined as identifiable non-monetary assets that cannot be seen, touched or physically measured. Examples of intangible assets include trade secrets, copyrights, patents, trademarks. If a company acquires assets at the prices above the book value, it may carry goodwill on its balance sheet. Goodwill reflects the difference between the price the company paid and the book value of the assets.
Piedmont Natural Gas Co (NYSE:PNY) Intangible Assets Explanation
If a company (company A) received a patent through their own work, though it has value, it does not show up on its balance sheet as an intangible asset. However, if company A sells this patent to company B, it will show up on company B's balance sheet as an intangible asset.
The same applies to brand names, trade secrets etc. For instance, Coca-Cola's brand is extremely valuable, but the brand does not appear on its balance sheet, because the brand was never acquired.
Some intangibles are amortized. Amortization is the depreciation of intangible assets.
Many intangibles are not amortized. They may still be written down when the company decides the asset is impaired.
Whenever you see an increase in goodwill over a number of years, you can assume it's because the company is out buying other businesses above book value. GOOD if buying businesses with durable competitive advantage.
If goodwill stays the same, the company when acquiring other companies is either paying less than book value or not acquiring. Businesses with moats never sell for less than book value.
Intangibles acquired are on balance sheet at fair value.
Internally developed brand names (Coke, Wrigleys, Band-Aid) however are not reflected on the balance sheet.
One of the reasons competitive advantage power can remain hidden for so long.
Be Aware
Companies may change the way intangible assets are amortized, and this will affect their reported earnings.
Piedmont Natural Gas Co Intangible Assets Related Terms
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Piedmont Natural Gas Co (Piedmont Natural Gas Co) Business Description
Piedmont Natural Gas Co Inc was incorporated in New York in 1950 and began operations in 1951. In 1994, it merged into a newly formed North Carolina corporation with the same name for the purpose of changing its state of incorporation to North Carolina. The Company is an energy services company whose business is distribution of natural gas to residential, commercial, industrial and power generation clients in portions of North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, including customers served by municipalities who are its wholesale customers. The Company is invested in joint venture, energy-related businesses, including unregulated retail natural gas marketing, regulated interstate natural gas transportation and storage and regulated intrastate natural gas transportation. It provides service from resource centers in Anderson, Greenville and Spartanburg in South Carolina and Charlotte, Salisbury, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point, Burlington, Hickory, Indian Trail, Spruce Pine, Reidsville, Fayetteville, New Bern, Wilmington, Tarboro, Elizabeth City, Rockingham and Goldsboro in North Carolina. In North Carolina, it also provides natural gas service to Greenville, Rocky Mount and Wilson. In Tennessee, its service area is the metropolitan area of Nashville, including wholesale natural gas service to Gallatin and Smyrna. The Company has three reportable business segments, regulated utility, regulated non-utility activities and unregulated non-utility activities. The regulated utility segment includes operating a safe and reliable natural gas distribution system and the ability to recover the costs and expenses of the business in the rates charged to customers. The regulated non-utility activities segment consists of equity method investments in regulated energy-related joint ventures that are held by the Company's wholly-owned subsidiaries. The unregulated non-utility activities segment consists of its equity method investment in an unregulated energy-related joint venture that is held by a wholly-owned subsidiary. The regulated utility competes with other energy products, such as electricity and propane, in the residential and commercial customer markets. Natural gas for power generation competes with other fuel sources for the generation of electricity, including coal, nuclear and renewable resources. Additionally, as with industrial customers, the Company competes with other pipeline providers to serve the power generation plants.
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