thexfilephoto Lately, I have been actively covering the MLP space, issuing rather bullish articles on Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD ), Enbridge ( ENB ), and Energy Transfer (NYSE: ET ). Since my focus is on capturing enticing and, in the same time, financially de-risked dividends, MPLX LP ( NYSE: MPLX ) has caught my attention (also thanks to the comments and suggestions by my followers). In a nutshell, MPLX is one of the largest midstream MLP players out there, with a market cap of over $41 billion.
The core operations of MPLX are quite conventional and in line with what the majority of MLPs do - i.e., owning and operating midstream energy infrastructure and logistics assets, as well as providing fuels distribution services.
Coming back to the dividends, the FWD dividend yield of MPLX is 8.3%, which is 110 basis points above ET, 90 basis points above END and somewhat in line with what ET offers. Interestingly, if we look at the chart below, we can see that the two highest yielding MLPs here (i.
e., MPLX and ET) have been the ones which have actually delivered the highest total returns over the trailing three-year period. This is a bit counterintuitive, since the price appreciation should theoretically reduce the yield level (unless the dividends have grown accordingly, on which I will touch upon a bit later in the article).
YCharts Here it is important to note that from my previously covered three MLPs, Energy Transfer has the highest debt profile, which is one of t.