Oppenheimer Reiterates Perform On Boardwalk Pipeline Partners (BWP)

Oppenheimer & Co. is reiterating its Perform rating on Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, LP

, as it believes the company's growth is slowing. In a note to clients, Oppenheimer writes, "We are reiterating our Perform rating on Boardwalk Pipeline Partners. We believe that the company has too much leverage. While we expect D/EBITDA to decline over the next several years, we believe it may take an equity issuance to reduce leverage to a more comfortable level. We believe that growth at BWP will be difficult to generate given its small (and declining) schedule of organic growth projects and high leverage. We revised down EBITDA and DCF/LP unit assumptions going forward to account for this outlook. Importantly, we are still expecting 3% annual distribution growth in 2011 and 2012." Shares of BWP lost 31 cents to close at $33.62, a loss of 0.9%.