Yield-Hungry Pros Feast on MLPs in Q4

Master limited partnerships are among the best places to earn high yields in your equity portfolio, and new holdings data from the Street’s top Pros shows institutional investors were adding stakes in the sector to end 2009.

After the market’s incredible run in 2009, investors have been anxiously waiting for the latest batch of 13F filings to see where Pros were placing bets to start the new year. With the deadline for filings behind us, the Street is now privy to fresh institutional holdings data, and insights as to the Pros’ favorite picks in the MLP segment.

A look at the MLPs Index’s performance chart shows that, while the segment largely tracks the S&P 500, it pulled away from the benchmark towards the end of 2009. Meanwhile, components of the MLPs Index pay out an average 7% yield to unit holders, among the highest of any equity segment.

Midstream oil and natural gas player Enterprise Products Partners (EPD) remains the favorite MLP among professional investors, with 47 Pros counting units among their top-15 U.S.-listed equity positions at the end of 2009. Magellan Midstream Partners (MMP), Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP), and Plains All American Pipeline (PAA) all had more than 30 Pro holders of the same criteria.

MLP specialist Tortoise Capital Advisors was adding stakes to its largest positions during the fourth quarter. Kinder Morgan Management (KMR), a limited partner of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, was the firm’s largest holding at the start of 2010. Other top positions included Enbridge Energy Partners (EEP), where Tortoise was trimming its stake, Energy Transfer Partners (NSYE: ETP), and Inergy (NRGY). The latter three all pay out yields of more than 7.5%. A list of the other MLPs Tortoise is investing in and a chart of their combined performance is available at tickerspy.com.

The MLPs Index is consistently among the top-10 tickerspy Indexes ranked by dividend yield, and as of this writing, it is also among the top-75 in performance over the last month.

Investors can track the MLPs Index and any of the Pros that are invested in its components for performance trends and a suite of other metrics at tickerspy.com.

Fun and informative, tickerspy.com is a free investing website where you can track multiple stock portfolios and compare against 250 proprietary Indexes tracking themes from dividends to ETFs to green energy to precious metals. Best of all, tickerspy.com lets you spy on the portfolios of nearly 3,000 Wall Street institutions and hedge funds and see graphs of their performance. Try tickerspy.com today and find out how you stack up against investing legends like Warren Buffett!

Tags: EEP, EPD, ETP, KMP, KMR, MMP, NRGY, PAA