Turnaround Time For This 14% Yield: Good Upside, No K-1, Better Coverage In 2019 For Golar LNG Partners LP

Golar LNG Partners LP (GMLP) had a rough go of it in 2018, with multiple special surveys/drydockings and re-contracting issues that pressured its cash flow. Management finally cut the common's distribution to $.4042 from $.5775 for the Q4 2018 payout.
Needless to say, that cut didn't go over so well with Mr. Market, who jumped overboard, and GMLP's common units became waterlogged, falling to the low teens from the low $20's, losing over 50% of its value in 2018.
GMLP paid out $2.14 in 2018 distributions, which only slightly mitigated that 50% price decline.
Golar's preferred units, Golar LNG Partners LP, 8.75% Series A Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Units (GMLPP) fared quite a bit better than the common units - their price declined -8.72% in 2018, ending the year at $23.75. The preferred units' $2.27/unit price decline was totally offset by the $2.28 in distributions, so GMLPP's total return for calendar year 2018 was flat.
GMLPP was one of our initial picks for the Hidden Dividend Stocks Plus portfolio back on 12/27/17. Its price performance was slightly better than the S&P 500, but its distributions put it over the top, giving it a total return of 2.56%, vs. -4.59% for the S&P and -26.29% for the Claymore/Delta Global Shipping ETF (SEA).
As we wrote here in our previous HDS+ article on GMLPP: "It pays to stack the deck in your favor, and utilizing preferreds is one way to do it - start out with very strong coverage... Read more