Saturday, May 12, 2012

The Income Potential of MLPs

The past is no guarantee of the future, but for the period 1996 - 2011 the growth of MLP dividends blew away the competition. REITS, utilities, bonds and the S&P 500 couldn't keep up.

Energy Income Partners (energymlp.com), which manages two closed end funds for First Trust (www.ftportfolios.com) -- FEN (Energy Income and Growth) and FIF (First Trust Energy Infrastructure Fund)has prepared a chart that nicely illustrates this point.


A common way to invest in MLPs are through funds that track the Alerian MLP ETF index such as the JP Morgan Alerian MLP Index ETN (AMJ). There are two objections to this fund: 1) the high expense ratio for an ETF of .85%, and 2) the ETN structure exposes investors to the credit worthiness of JP Morgan with just took a headline catching $2 billion dollar loss on some foolish investments.

Given these objections and the limited universe of MLPs, individual investors may be better off buying these securities directly. The index is made up of companies like the ones below (a full list can be found at the Alerian site):

SecuritySymbol
ENTERPRISE PRODUCTS PARTNERS L EPD
KINDER MORGAN ENERGY PARTNERS L.P. KMP
LINN ENERGY, LLC. LINE
PLAINS ALL AMERICAN PIPELINE L PAA
ENERGY TRANSFER PARTNERS LP ETP
ONEOK PARTNERS LP OKS
MAGELLAN MIDSTREAM PARTNERS LP MMP
ENBRIDGE ENERGY PARTNERS LP EEP
WILLIAMS PARTNERS LP WPZ
MARKWEST ENERGY PARTNERS LP MWE
EL PASO PIPELINE PARTNERS EPB
BUCKEYE PARTNERS LP BPL
TARGA RESOURCES PARTNERS LP NGLS
NUSTAR ENERGY LP NS
REGENCY ENERGY PARTNERS LP RGP
SUNOCO LOGISTICS PARTNERS LP SXL
WESTERN GAS PARTNERS LP WES
BOARDWALK PIPELINE PARTNERS LP BWP
COPANO ENERGY LLC CPNO
GENESIS ENERGY LP GEL
DCP MIDSTREAM PARTNERS LP DPM
TC PIPELINES LP TCP
SPECTRAENERGY PARTNERS LP SEP
CHESAPEAKE MIDSTREAM PART CHKM
EXTERRAN PARTNERS LP EXLP
CROSSTEX ENERGY LP XTEX

Most companies in the index deal with energy in some manner, such as exploration and production, or transport, and have a history of steady dividend increases. Merger activity has also picked up in this sector with Kinder Morgan's planned merger with El Paso, and Energy Transfer Partners planned merger with Sunoco.

The largest MLP at the moment is Energy Products Partners (EPD), and their dividend history is impressive, especially with reinvestments:

YearDividend
1999........ $0.92
2000........$1.02
2001........ $1.14
2002........ $1.34
2003........ $1.44
2004........ $1.51
2005........ $1.66
2006........ $1.80
2007........ $1.92
2008........ $2.05
2009........ $2.17
2010........ $2.29
2011........ $2.41



Income investors should take a hard look at MLPs for their portfolios to supplement their traditional stock and bond allocations. The last decade was spectacular for MLPs as compared to stocks, and while that is not a predictor of the future the oil and gas boom on private lands is continuing to fuel the growth of these companies.

Disclosure: Long EPD, LINE, BIP.

1 comment:

  1. A word of caution concerning master limted parternerships. Sometimes these things are high risk. If you are not dealing with someone thats a real expert when it comes to this sort of investment that could be a big mistake. Some of these trusts do not even trade on a regular exchange.

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