Enterprise Products Partners (EPD 0.48%) reported third-quarter earnings this morning, and the results were strong. Revenue jumped 15.5% year over year to $12.09 billion, and gross operating margin rose 9% to $1.2 billion.
Distributable cash flow, the most important metric for master limited partnerships like Enterprise, grew 22% over last year's number to $908 million. Enterprise retained $286 million in DCF to reinvest back into the partnership. Net income also grew, from $587 million in 2012 to $592 million this year. Despite this, net income per unit was down $0.02 year over year to $0.64.
Management had previously announced Enterprise's 37th straight distribution increase, paying out $0.69 per limited partner unit this quarter. That brings the partnership's third-quarter distribution coverage ratio to 1.5 times distributions paid, which is exceptional.
Two of the Enterprise's five business units suffered year-over-year declines in gross operating margin: petrochemical and refined products services, and offshore pipelines and services. Overall results were buoyed by strong showings from the onshore pipeline segments, as well as NGL pipelines and services.
Also of note, Enterprise finished the quarter with a total debt load of $17.5 billion, with consolidated liquidity of $3.9 billion.
