Stephen Maresca Morgan Stanley First-place appearances: 3
Total appearances: 5
Analyst debut: 2009 The outlook for master limited partnerships is “still one of growing cash payouts to shareholders, with relatively lower-risk assets and substantial capital project opportunity,” says Stephen Maresca. Morgan Stanley’s analyst captures first place for a third year running and also joins the winner’s circle in Natural Gas. “Steve is great at evaluating opportunities to unlock the value of underappreciated assets and isn’t afraid to be early in the transformation,” one client declares. Against a backdrop of increasing oil, gas and natural-gas-liquids production, MLPs have ever more opportunities for capital investment in the infrastructure required to handle and move supplies from remote locations to end-user markets, notes Maresca, 38. In turn, given businesses’ increased use of tax-favored MLPs to house energy assets, investors can own infrastructure assets wrapped in a security that pays 5 to 6 percent yields and possesses a solid return on invested capital that should keep distributable cash flow per share and distributions per share growing by 7 to 9 percent, overall, he estimates. Among the names Maresca favors are Pittsburgh-based Atlas Energy and Dallas’s Energy Transfer Equity, thanks to their “exposure to growing general-partner cash flow streams — some of the highest-growing cash flows in the sector,” he says. — Carolyn Koo
Also appearing in Energy Natural Gas