Enterprise Products Scales 52-Week High - Analyst Blog

Shares of Enterprise Products Partners L.P. EPD hit a 52-week high of $72.35 during Wednesday's trading session. The stock closed the session at $72.23, which reflects a solid return of 21.6% over the past six months. The average trading volume for the last three months aggregated 1,048,100 shares.

The upgrade comes on the back of a hike in cash distribution announced on Tuesday. The partnership has declared a quarterly cash distribution of 71 cents per common unit or $2.84 per unit on an annualized basis. The cash distribution is 6% higher than the 67 cents per unit distribution declared in the first quarter of 2013. This raise in quarterly distribution represents the 48th distribution increase since the partnership's initial public offering in 1998 and 39th consecutive quarterly increase. The cash distribution will be paid on May 7, 2014, to unitholders of record as of the close of business on April 30.

Enterprise Products Partners is engaged in providing a wide range of midstream energy services to the producers and consumers of natural gas, natural gas liquids NGL and crude oil. The partnership's assets include 51,000 miles of onshore and offshore pipelines, approximately 200 million barrels of storage capacity for NGLs, refined products and crude oil, and 14 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage capacity.

We continue to view Enterprise Products Partners as a core holding in the master limited partnership portfolio, given its string of organic growth projects, potential acquisitions, strong balance sheet and solid liquidity position. The partnership is one of the largest fully integrated midstream service providers with a positive long-term outlook thanks to its significant geographic and business diversity.

With its diverse set of NGL, natural gas, crude oil and refined products midstream infrastructure assets, the partnership possesses fundamental strengths that will continue to support distribution growth.

Enterprise currently carries a short-term Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Other stocks worth considering in the industry include Range Resources Corporation RRC, Unit Corporation UNT and Helmerich & Payne, Inc. HP, all with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).