Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. (ETP) from UNDERPERFORM to NEUTRAL on May 14, 2013, with a target price of $52.00.
We are upgrading our recommendation on ETP units to Neutral from Underperform, reflecting a balanced risk/reward profile. ETP remains a premier MLP with strategically-positioned assets that serve major North American natural gas-producing basins. We like the partnership's robust organic growth profile, stable fee-based operating income and strong liquidity position. While the partnership kept its distribution unchanged, we expect growth to resume shortly, driven by the completion of a broad array of organic growth projects. Additionally, the acquisition of Sunoco will help ETP to diversify and recalibrate its pipeline assets. However, we believe that the near- to medium-term outlook for the partnership's natural gas gathering and processing business continues to be weak, which remains a major liability, in our view.
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