What happened
Shares of Enterprise Products Partners (EPD -0.91%) rallied on Monday, closing the day up 3.8%. The large-cap stock doesn't always move so much in one day, so today's rally didn't escape the attention of investors in oil and gas stocks.
So what
Enterprise Products Partners is one of the largest midstream oil and gas stocks in the U.S. with nearly 50,000 miles of pipelines transporting natural gas, natural gas liquids, crude oil, and petrochemicals and other refined products. Enterprise Products Partners stores, processes, and transports fuels, and is also the world's largest exporter of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
With prices of oil and gas rising, Enterprise Products Partners generated nearly $2 billion in cash from operations during its second quarter, up 69% year over year. It generated $1.6 billion in distributable cash flow that comfortably covered its distribution (or dividend) by 1.6 times. Importantly, Enterprise Products Partners has increased dividends for 22 consecutive years now.
With the surge in fuel prices, investors expect even bigger returns from Enterprise Products Partners.
Image source: Getty Images.
Monday morning, crude oil prices surged and hit seven-year highs after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies decided to continue with earlier plans to increase oil production only gradually each month instead of ramping it up now. OPEC made this decision despite calls from some key oil-consuming nations to boost production in the wake of soaring global demand and the energy crisis in Europe. Natural gas prices, too, inched higher Monday to hit multiyear highs.
The development sent most oil and gas stocks soaring, with Enterprise Products Partners joining the rally as investors saw value in the cheap oil stock that should not only make more money from rising oil and gas prices but also be able to pay bigger dividends.
Now what
Enterprise Products Partners is one of the most promising oil and gas stocks out there especially for income investors, given the company's solid dividend track record. The stock, though, was languishing for some months, which drove its dividend yield up to a whopping 8.3%. With oil and gas prices showing no signs of decreasing, investors are perhaps finally finding the cheap, high-yield stock too tempting to ignore anymore.
