Can Enterprise Products Maintain Its Consistent Capital Returns?

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. EPD generates revenues by transporting crude oil, natural gas, NGLs, refined products and petrochemicals across its extensive asset base. The partnership derives stable, fee-based cash flows from long-term contracts under which shippers reserve capacity on its midstream infrastructure.

EPD, a leading midstream operator, has consistently returned capital to unitholders through distributions and unit buybacks. Since its IPO, the partnership has returned approximately $62 billion to equity investors.

To further strengthen its operations and support future cash returns, EPD has a backlog of major capital projects totaling $4.8 billion currently under construction, with several projects expected to enter service by 2026. EPD has allocated growth capital spending of $2.5-$2.9 billion for 2026 and $2-$2.5 billion for 2027, along with a maintenance capital of about $580 million in 2026 to secure an additional cash flow.

KMI & MPLX Also Focus on Returning Capital to Shareholders

Kinder Morgan Inc. KMI and MPLX LP MPLX are other midstream players that also generate fee-based revenues. MPLX and KMI, by virtue of their resilient business models, are also focused on returning capital to shareholders.

Total dividend payments of KMI exceeded $2.6 billion in 2025. The company increased its dividend for nine consecutive years.

In 2025, MPLX returned $4.4 billion of capital to unitholders, including $400 million in unit repurchases.

EPD’s Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Shares of Enterprise Products have gained 6.9% over the past year against the 3.4% decline registered by the composite stocks belonging to the industry.

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From a valuation standpoint, EPD trades at a trailing 12-month enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) of 11.15X, below the broader industry average of 11.19X.

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The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the to-be-reported quarter has seen upward revision over the past seven days. Meanwhile, for the second quarter and 2026, EPD's earnings estimates have seen downward revisions.

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Enterprise Products currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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