Stock in Focus: Inergy Reports Record Earnings, Raises Guidance (NRGP), (NRGY)

Inergy, a family of companies that includes Inergy, L.P. (NASDAQ: NRGY) and Inergy Holdings, L.P. (NASDAQ: NRGP) are trading mixed today after reporting record earnings for the fiscal fourth quarter and year ended September 30, 2009. Inergy Holdings (NRGP) is up $.11 to $53.57. Its cash-generating assets primarily consist of its partnership interests, including incentive distribution rights, in Inergy, L.P. (NRGY), which is down $.31 to $32.99.

Inergy L.P., which sells propane and leases propane equipment and supplies to retail and wholesale customers, as well as commercial and industrial customers, reported an adjusted EBITDA of $296.8 million for the year ending September 30, 2009, compared to $239 million for the previous year, an increase of about 24% or $57.8 million.

Inergy President and CEO John Sherman said, “Thanks to their efforts we added to our track record of delivering consistent results and achieving our operational and financial performance objectives. In a challenging economic environment, we focused on things we could control, grew our distributable cash flow by 27%, and raised our distribution in every quarter. Additionally, we raised over $400 million of long-term capital, kept our existing expansion projects on track, and upgraded our future growth outlook. The combination of these accomplishments with last week’s renewal and upsizing of our bank credit facility, positions Inergy (NRGY) very well to take advantage of pending opportunities and to execute our growth strategy on behalf of our unit holders.”

Inergy also raised its guidance for its adjusted EBITDA for the full fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, from $313 million to $332 million.

Earlier this month, CNBC’s Mad Money Jim Cramer said he liked Inergy, L.P. (NASDAQ: NRGY) because he believes that propane stocks are offering great yields. In addition, late last month, Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) upgraded NRGY from “market perform” to “outperform.”