Is Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET) a buy in 2026?

Where ET is headed

Energy Transfer in 2028 looks less like a legacy MLP and more like the toll operator for two of the decade's biggest structural demand stories: US LNG and NGL exports out of the Gulf, and behind-the-meter gas for AI datacenters in Texas. The Nederland terminal expansion, the Lake Charles LNG offtake arrangements, and the eight ERCOT-connected gas plants ET is contracted to supply mean the partnership is monetizing molecules three ways, transport, fractionation, and export, on infrastructure that was already sunk cost. Distributable cash flow on a $2.6 billion annualized base at the FY26 pace supports the $1.32 unit distribution with roughly 1.9x coverage, and management has been buying back units for the first time in the partnership's history. That combination, growing DCF, disciplined capex around $3 billion a year, and a coverage ratio that would make an investment-grade C-corp blush, is not what the market has priced into a 6.5% yield.