Securities Lawyers Blog
The law offices of Gana Weinstein LLP continue to report on investor related losses and potential legal remedies due to unsuitable recommendations to investor in oil and gas and commodities related investments. Memorial Production Partners (Ticker Symbol: MEMP) is a Master Limited Partnership (MLP). Memorial Production Partners has declined 83.5% in value from its 52-week high and is trading at only $3.08 a share. Memorial Production Partners business focuses in the oil and gas production sector.
About 86% of the total MLP securities market, a $490 billion sector, can be attributed to energy and natural resource companies. MLPs contain significant risks. MLPs tend to fluctuate wildly with the price of oil and gas. For example in 2008, when oil plummeted in the wake of the great recession the AMZ MLP Index declined by 36.9% in a single year. In addition, MLPs often grow their distributions at an accelerated rate in their first two years in order to attract positive research reports from Wall Street analysts. The increased distributions and positive reports serve to drive the stock price higher even though the long term yield of these MLPs are speculative and unknown.
However, brokers that have recommended MLPs to investors may have made unsuitable recommendations based upon the yields of these investments rather than the risk to principal. Over the past year MLPs have been hammered due to weaknesses in oil and gas and commodities markets.