The pipeline sector offers investors a nice mix of high yields, predictable cash flows, and solid growth. And with natural gas demand set to climb thanks to liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports and energy-hungry AI data centers, the midstream sector looks well positioned to deliver strong returns from here. My five favorite stocks in the pipeline space are: Energy Transfer (ET -0.36%), Enterprise Products Partners (EPD -0.31%), Western Midstream (WES 0.47%), The Williams Companies (WMB 0.29%), and Genesis En ...

Energy Transfer (ET -1.21%) has changed a lot over the past five years. In 2020, the master limited partnership's (MLP) financial profile had weakened to the point that it needed to slash its distribution by 50% to retain additional cash to fund its expansion projects and repay debt. Energy Transfer is working on securing customers for phase two, which would increase its capacity to 2.2 billion cubic feet per day. The combined cost for both phases is $2.7 billion. Energy Transfer is also building more natur ...