Energy Transfer LP (ET): Among Billionaire David Abrams' Stock Picks with Huge Upside Potential

We recently published a list of Billionaire David Abrams’ 10 Stock Picks with Huge Upside Potential. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET) stands against other stock picks with huge upside potential.

David Abrams founded Abrams Capital Management in 1999. Before forming the Boston-based investment firm, Abrams worked at Seth Klarman’s Baupost Group for 10 years. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA degree in History, where he also served on the Board of Advisors of the College of Arts and Sciences. Abrams didn’t have a finance background when he got his first job in New York in the early 1980s. He learned all about investing under Seth Klarman before setting out independently after a decade. He is a value investor, and in the ~12 years of his fund, he has achieved an annualized return of around 20%. His firm is like a one-man shop, which employs a small staff. Abrams Capital has 9 clients and discretionary assets under management (AUM) of $10.05 billion, as reported in the firm’s Form ADV dated 13 January 2025. The last reported 13F filing for Q4 2024 included $6.22 billion in managed 13F securities and a top 10 holdings concentration of 98.7%.

Abrams is known for maintaining a low public profile, but in a conversation on Columbia Business School’s ‘Value Investing with Legends’ Podcast series, he discussed the surface of his foundational principles when it comes to his investment philosophy. He starts by looking at the risks first and foremost, without any consideration of prospective gains. This is a reminder that the future remains unpredictable, which Abrams puts in the following words:

“When you look back, there’s one path that happened, but that doesn’t mean that going forward there’s only one path. In the future, there’s multiple paths.”

Abrams’ portfolio reflects a balanced approach with exposure to growth sectors like Industrials and Consumer Cyclical, while also maintaining moderate allocations in established industries such as Communication Services. He also believes that declining industries can present stability because they attract limited new entrants. This also implies that high-growth sectors are, on the contrary, characterized by intense competition, which necessitates a more detailed analysis of potential competitive threats. Here’s what Abrams had to say about this:

“If you have a shrinking industry and it’s dying, it’s like, people are not dying to get into that.”

Abrams serves as a director of several private companies. He is currently on the board of MITMCO, which manages the MIT endowment. Previously, he was a trustee of Berklee College of Music for 15 years, where he chaired the investment committee. He was also the trustee of Milton Academy.

Our Methodology

To compile the list of billionaire David Abrams’ 10 stock picks with huge upside potential, we sifted through Q4 2024 13F filings of Abrams Capital Management from Insider Monkey. From these filings, we checked each stock’s upside potential from CNN and ranked the stocks in ascending order of this upside potential. We have also added Abrams Capital Management’s stake in each stock as well as the broader hedge fund sentiment for it.

Note: All data was sourced on May 8.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).

Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET)

Abrams Capital Management’s Stake: $349.37 million

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 37

Average Upside Potential as of May 8: 36.18%

Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET) owns and operates natural gas transportation pipelines and storage facilities. It has about 12,200 miles of intrastate natural gas transportation pipelines and 20,090 miles of interstate natural gas pipelines. It also sells natural gas to electric utilities, independent power plants, local distribution and other marketing companies, and industrial end-users.

Energy Transfer’s NGL and refined products segment generated adjusted EBITDA of $1.1 billion in Q$ 2024, which was up from the $1.04 billion year-over-year. This was fueled by higher throughput and increased rates across the company’s Gulf Coast and Mariner East pipeline operations. The company expects to invest ~$1.4 billion in NGL and refined products in 2025.

For instance, the Nederland Flexport expansion is anticipated to begin ethane and propane export service by mid-2025, with ethylene export service expected to commence in Q4 2025. On April 29, Mizuho Securities adjusted its outlook on the stock and reduced the price target from $24 to $22 while maintaining an Outperform rating. This reassessment was attributed to Energy Transfer LP’s (NYSE:ET) FY2025 adjusted EBITDA guidance coming in below expectations.

Patient Capital Management remains optimistic on the company’s long-term pricing opportunities and stated the following regarding Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:

“Energy names disappointed in the quarter following commodity prices lower throughout the period. We took the opportunity to add to our highest conviction ideas. We look to names that have idiosyncratic opportunities and are attractive in a variety of different commodity price environments. Many see risk to energy prices over the next year as supply is expected to outstrip demand by 1.3mb/d even before assuming any incremental OPEC supply comes onto the market. With commodities, consensus is rarely right. We assess companies on through cycle returns and normalized prices. From this perspective, we see a handful of attractive opportunities, including Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET), Seadrill (SDRL) and Kosmos (KOS).

Our ownership of Energy Transfer began in 2019 with the belief that the limited supply of new pipelines would provide attractive pricing opportunities over the long-term. At the same time, the company was paying us an attractive dividend (10% yield over the period). So far this investment thesis has largely played out, but we continue to see an attractive long-term setup for the name given our belief that natural gas will be a key ingredient to bridge us to a net carbon neutral world.”

Overall, ET ranks 4th on our list of billionaire David Abrams’ stock picks with huge upside potential. While we acknowledge the potential of ET as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold great promise for delivering high returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than ET but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.