3 High-Yield MLPs Attractive for Income Investors | Investing.com

Investors looking for high yields should consider Master Limited Partnerships, or MLPs. Many Master Limited Partnerships yield 5% or more, even double-digit yields in some cases.

Of course, investors should not simply chase the highest yields—some high-yielding stocks have poor fundamentals and end up cutting their payouts to investors. Therefore, investors should focus their search on MLPs with high yields and sustainable payouts.

This article will discuss 3 top MLPs that have high yields above 5%, and also have sustainable distributions that can withstand recessions.

Hess Midstream Partners LP (NYSE:HESM) (HESM) owns and operates midstream assets primarily located in the Bakken and Three Forks Shale plays in North Dakota. It provides oil, gas and water midstream services to Hess (NYSE:HES) and third-party customers in the U.S.

Hess Midstream has long-term commercial contracts, which extend through 2033. Its contracts are 100% fee-based and hence they minimize the exposure of the company to commodity prices. About 85% of the revenues of Hess Midstream are protected by minimum-volume commitments.

In late April, Hess Midstream reported (4/30/25) financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2025. Throughput volumes grew 8% for gas processing, 7% for oil terminaling and 9% for water gathering over the prior year’s quarter thanks to higher production. As a result, revenue grew 7% and earnings-per-share grew 8%, from $0.60 to $0.65.

Management reaffirmed its strong guidance for 2025 thanks to strong business momentum in all segments. It expects 10% growth of throughput volumes, 11% growth of adjusted EBITDA and at least 5% annual growth of distributions until 2027. It also expects to reduce leverage ratio (Net Debt to EBITDA) below 2.5x by the end of next year.

Hess Midstream has been consistently growing its earnings thanks to growing production of Hess and annual fee hikes linked to inflation. It has promising growth prospects ahead, primarily thanks to secular growth in gas capture. The company expects to grow its gas and oil volumes by 10% per year until 2026 and by more than 5% in 2027.

It also expects to grow its EBITDA and free cash flow by more than 10% per year until 2026. Given also that leverage (Net Debt to EBITDA) is expected to fall below 2.5x by the end of 2026, management expects to raise the distribution by at least 5% per year through 2027.

Enterprise Products Partners LP (NYSE:EPD) was founded in 1968. It is structured as a Master Limited Partnership, or MLP, and operates as an oil and gas storage and transportation company. Enterprise Products has a tremendous asset base which consists of nearly 50,000 miles of natural gas, natural gas liquids, crude oil, and refined products pipelines. It also has storage capacity of more than 250 million barrels.

On April 29, 2025, Enterprise Products Partners L.P. reported its financial results for the first quarter of 2025. The company posted a net income attributable to common unitholders of $1.4 billion, or $0.64 per diluted unit, compared to $1.5 billion, or $0.66 per unit, in the same quarter of 2024.

Distributable cash flow (DCF) increased by 5% year-over-year to $2.0 billion, providing 1.7 times coverage of the declared distribution and allowing the partnership to retain $842 million for reinvestment. Adjusted EBITDA remained strong at $2.4 billion, reflecting consistent operational performance. The company declared a quarterly distribution of $0.535 per common unit, a 3.9% increase from the previous year.

Enterprise reported record natural gas processing volumes of 7.7 billion cubic feet per day and record natural gas pipeline volumes of 20.3 trillion Btus per day. The NGL Pipelines & Services segment achieved a gross operating margin of $1.4 billion, driven by higher processing volumes and equity NGL-equivalent production. Conversely, the Petrochemical & Refined Products Services segment experienced a decline in gross operating margin to $315 million, primarily due to lower average sales margins and deficiency revenues in the octane enhancement business.

EPD has a strong balance sheet. It has credit ratings of BBB+ from Standard & Poor’s and Baa1 from Moody’s, which are higher ratings than most MLPs. It also has a distribution coverage ratio of nearly 2x, leaving room for distribution increases and unit repurchases. Enterprise Products’ high-quality assets generate strong cash flow, even in recessions.

As a result, Enterprise Products has been able to raise its distribution to unitholders for 27 years in a row. EPD currently yields 6.9%.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (TSX:BIP_u) is one of the largest global owners and operators of infrastructure networks, which includes operations in sectors such as energy, water, freight, passengers, and data. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners is one of multiple publicly-traded listed companies under Brookfield Corporation (BN).

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners is a Bermuda-based limited partnership that is treated as a partnership for U.S. and Canadian tax purposes, and it reports financial results in U.S. dollars.

BIP reported resilient results for Q1 2025 on 04/30/25. The diversified utility reported funds from operations (“FFO”) of $646 million, up 5.0% year over year. FFO per unit (“FFOPU”) was $0.82, up 5.1%. Year to date, BIP has generated ~$1.4 billion of sale proceeds, making meaningful progress towards its goal of generating $5-6 billion over the next 2 years.

A portion of these proceeds will be used to acquire Colonial Enterprises, which consists of the largest refined products systems in the U.S., spanning about 5,500 miles along the U.S. East Coast between Texas and New York, with decades of strong performance and high utilization. It is on track to close three more asset sales later this year – a non-core data center, and interests in a U.S. gas pipeline and European hyperscale data center – that would generate net proceeds of approximately $550 million to BIP.

From 2015-2024, the FFOPS and DPS had compound annual growth rates of 6.2% and 7.8%, respectively, on a split-adjusted basis. BIP has a strong track record of selling mature assets and redeploying capital for attractive long-term returns. Additionally, its infrastructure portfolio also expects to experience strong organic growth of 6-9% per year. BIP intends to make new investments of $1.5 billion each year. BIP targets an FFOPS growth rate of 10% and dividend growth of 5-9%.

Importantly, BIP continues to reward its unitholders with an increasing cash distribution. It just raised its quarterly distribution by 6% to $0.43 per unit, equating an annualized payout of $1.72. BIP has now increased its dividend for 16 years in a row and currently yields 5.4%.

Disclosure: No positions in any stocks mentioned

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