Genesis Energy Gets First Upgrade In Almost 1 Year By Citi

Genesis Energy, L.P. (NYSE: GEL) is an "underappreciated growth story," Citi said, while upgrading the stock to Buy from Neutral.

"We believe GEL offers investors an underappreciated growth story driven by a visible ramp in its deepwater Gulf of Mexico pipelines and organic investments in its Supply and Logistics/onshore pipeline businesses," analyst Faisel Khan wrote in a note.

Khan, who expects Genesis to generate about 10 percent distribution growth through the end of the decade, noted that the company is set to benefit from its near $1 billion organic capex in the back half of 2016 or early 2017.

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"We expect additional cash flow growth in the offshore business through 2020 driven by increased production from several key projects including Lucius and Heidelberg. We do not believe there is a significant cliff in GOM production in the current decade based on forecasts for projects sanctioned and online and decline rates significantly less severe compared to shale," Khan noted.

Further, the analyst said extreme bear case arguments against supply and logistics, refinery services and marine transportation units ignore the niche nature of these businesses, which generate steady stream of cash flows.

At time of writing, Genesis was up 3.18 percent on the day, trading at $39.59. Khan cut the price target by $2 to $46.