Memorial Production Partners LP (Nasdaq: MEMP) has joined the ranks of frequent buyers, racking up more points as master limited partnerships continue to buy their way to growth. It will acquire some East Texas properties from Goodrich Petroleum Corp. for $95 million, its fourth acquisition this year.

The deal brings the newly public MLP, based in Houston, net production of 12.6 million cubic feet equivalent (MMcfe) per day (62% natural gas, 38% liquids). It also adds 139 billion cubic feet equivalent (Bcfe) of proved reserves to the 390 Bcfe it already had.

The acquired assets are only 22% proved developed producing (PDP), with a reserve-to-production ratio of nearly 30 years. The transaction is expected to close on or before Sept. 28.

“There is a lot of meat on the bones,” Memorial’s chairman, president and chief executive John A. Weinzierl told the IPAA Leaders in Industry group in July. “We have more than 400 development opportunities, and we can acquire assets in four different ways. We are an MLP so we don’t take crazy bets on commodity prices. We hedge like crazy.”

The MLP’s sponsor is Memorial Resource Development LLC, a private owner that will continue to acquire assets, operate them and then drop them down to the MLP. It owns 57% of the units.

“It has an interest in five ongoing entities with more than 220 employees, so it’s a lot of scalability — a lot of boots on the ground that we can leverage for deal flow,” Weinzierl said.

The MLP went public in December 2011 in the face of what Weinzierl calls “almost impossible” odds, when the Eurozone crisis was buffeting the stock market daily and natural gas prices were tanking. Prior to the IPO, he was a managing director and operating partner of private-equity firm NGP (Natural Gas Partners), the backer of the sponsor of this MLP.

Memorial focuses on East Texas, South Texas and Louisiana.

Raymond James & Associates says of the recent deal, “Given the partnership's impressive cash low and distribution growth outlook, plus its attractive valuation (10.7% yield), we reiterate our ‘Outperform’ rating. Given the strong distribution growth and coverage outlook, we are raising our target price from $20 to $22 per unit. Our new target price represents a 7x multiple to our 2013 EBITDA (earnings before income tax, depreciation and amortization) estimate. This is in-line with the traditional upstream MLP range of 7 to 10x. Our target price also implies a 9% yield based on our 2013 distribution forecast.”

The MLP plans to draw on its revolver to finance the transaction. As of the second quarter, the firm had about $200 million drawn on its $300-million borrowing base, leaving roughly $100 million in liquidity. “Also of note, in conjunction with the closing of this acquisition, Memorial has received commitments from its bank group to increase its borrowing base to $380 million, leaving $85 million in liquidity post-closing,” the Raymond James research note says.

The firm raised its 2012/2013 revenue, earnings per unit (EPU), and adjusted EBITDA estimates, and said, “We would not be surprised to see upside to our distribution growth forecast.”