Enterprise Products Partners (EPD) vs. The Competition Critical Review

Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD) is one of 1,050 publicly-traded companies in the “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Enterprise Products Partners to similar companies based on the strength of its dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings and valuation.

Dividends

Enterprise Products Partners pays an annual dividend of $2.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.8%. Enterprise Products Partners pays out 74.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies pay a dividend yield of 9.0% and pay out -137.0% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Enterprise Products Partners has increased its dividend for 28 consecutive years. Enterprise Products Partners lags its peers as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Enterprise Products Partners and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Enterprise Products Partners	10.24%	21.41%	8.14%
Enterprise Products Partners Competitors	-459.77%	19.40%	6.80%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

26.1% of Enterprise Products Partners shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.8% of shares of all “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies are held by institutional investors. 32.6% of Enterprise Products Partners shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 15.3% of shares of all “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Enterprise Products Partners and its peers revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Enterprise Products Partners	$52.60 billion	$5.81 billion	12.69
Enterprise Products Partners Competitors	$11.18 billion	$5.52 billion	-1.24

Enterprise Products Partners has higher revenue and earnings than its peers. Enterprise Products Partners is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Volatility and Risk

Enterprise Products Partners has a beta of 0.48, meaning that its stock price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Enterprise Products Partners’ peers have a beta of -3.78, meaning that their average stock price is 478% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Enterprise Products Partners and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Enterprise Products Partners	1	10	7	0	2.33
Enterprise Products Partners Competitors	6003	27073	40987	2438	2.52

Enterprise Products Partners currently has a consensus target price of $40.18, indicating a potential upside of 4.82%. As a group, “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies have a potential upside of 26.37%. Given Enterprise Products Partners’ peers stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Enterprise Products Partners has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Summary

Enterprise Products Partners beats its peers on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

Enterprise Products Partners Company Profile

Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD) is a North American midstream energy company that gathers, processes, transports, stores and exports energy-related commodities. Its operations support the movement of products from producing regions to refineries, petrochemical plants and other customers. The company’s assets include pipelines, natural gas processing plants, storage facilities, and terminals. It handles natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), crude oil, refined products and petrochemicals, and provides services such as NGL fractionation and transportation.