- Green Plains Partners (GPP -0.8%) is upgraded to Buy from Hold with a $21 price target, cut from $22, at Stifel, which says valuation is attractive at current levels.
- Recent pressure at GPP could be blamed on uncertainty over renewable fuel standards in the new administration, but Stifel sees little to suggest Pres.-elect Trump’s policy will radically alter ethanol mandates and expects ethanol to remain the preferred method of raising gasoline’s oxygenate level; the firm also notes that GPP’s sponsor, Green Plains Inc. (GPRE -0.3%), is an ethanol producer and has not exhibited the same weakness as GPP, thus supporting its belief that the decline in unit prices at GPP is not fundamentally driven.
- The firm lowered its rating on GPP to Hold on Nov. 1; units have since lost 14% while the broader MLP space has held flat.