Critical Survey: Cheniere Energy Partners (CQP) vs. The Competition

Cheniere Energy Partners (NYSE:CQP) is one of 23 publicly-traded companies in the “Natural gas distribution” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Cheniere Energy Partners to related businesses based on the strength of its dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Cheniere Energy Partners and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cheniere Energy Partners	2	0	0	0	1.00
Cheniere Energy Partners Competitors	427	1043	877	36	2.22

Cheniere Energy Partners currently has a consensus target price of $50.50, suggesting a potential downside of 6.38%. As a group, “Natural gas distribution” companies have a potential upside of 6.95%. Given Cheniere Energy Partners’ peers stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Cheniere Energy Partners has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Dividends

Cheniere Energy Partners pays an annual dividend of $3.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.7%. Cheniere Energy Partners pays out 67.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Natural gas distribution” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.8% and pay out 48.2% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Profitability

This table compares Cheniere Energy Partners and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cheniere Energy Partners	31.28%	-328.60%	13.93%
Cheniere Energy Partners Competitors	1.82%	-15.64%	0.53%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Cheniere Energy Partners and its peers revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cheniere Energy Partners	$8.93 billion	$4.25 billion	11.65
Cheniere Energy Partners Competitors	$15.01 billion	$1.14 billion	18.95

Cheniere Energy Partners’ peers have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Cheniere Energy Partners. Cheniere Energy Partners is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

46.5% of Cheniere Energy Partners shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 58.2% of shares of all “Natural gas distribution” companies are held by institutional investors. 14.0% of shares of all “Natural gas distribution” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

Cheniere Energy Partners has a beta of 0.73, indicating that its stock price is 27% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cheniere Energy Partners’ peers have a beta of 0.86, indicating that their average stock price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Cheniere Energy Partners peers beat Cheniere Energy Partners on 11 of the 15 factors compared.

About Cheniere Energy Partners

Cheniere Energy Partners, L.P., through its subsidiaries, provides liquefied natural gas (LNG) to integrated energy companies, utilities, and energy trading companies worldwide. The company owns and operates natural gas liquefaction and export facility at the Sabine Pass LNG Terminal located in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. It also owns a natural gas supply pipeline that interconnects the Sabine Pass LNG terminal with various interstate pipelines. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. Cheniere Energy Partners, L.P. is a subsidiary of Cheniere Energy, Inc.