Investors Buy High Volume of Energy Transfer Call Options (NYSE:ET)

Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET) saw unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock investors purchased 96,837 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 99% compared to the average volume of 48,747 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Basepoint Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Energy Transfer in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Gables Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Energy Transfer by 60.0% in the 4th quarter. Gables Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,600 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 600 shares during the period. Sarver Vrooman Wealth Advisors bought a new stake in Energy Transfer during the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Financial Life Planners purchased a new stake in Energy Transfer in the 3rd quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Navalign LLC bought a new position in Energy Transfer in the 4th quarter worth about $37,000. 38.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ET has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a report on Wednesday, December 24th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Energy Transfer from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Energy Transfer from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised Energy Transfer to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.60.

Energy Transfer Trading Up 0.2%

NYSE ET traded up $0.05 on Friday, hitting $19.01. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 11,848,993 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,764,654. Energy Transfer has a 52-week low of $14.60 and a 52-week high of $19.30. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $18.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.33. The firm has a market cap of $65.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.69, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.63.

Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The pipeline company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.34 by ($0.09). Energy Transfer had a net margin of 5.11% and a return on equity of 10.17%. The company had revenue of $25.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $23.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.29 earnings per share. Energy Transfer’s revenue was up 29.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Energy Transfer will post 1.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Energy Transfer Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 6th were issued a dividend of $0.335 per share. This is a boost from Energy Transfer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.33. This represents a $1.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 6th. Energy Transfer’s payout ratio is 110.74%.

About Energy Transfer

Energy Transfer (NYSE: ET) is a Dallas-based midstream energy company that develops and operates infrastructure for the transportation, storage and processing of hydrocarbons. The company’s operations focus on moving and storing natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), crude oil and refined products through an integrated network of pipelines, terminals, storage facilities and processing plants. Energy Transfer provides core midstream services such as gathering, compression, fractionation, processing, and bulk transportation to support production and downstream supply chains.

Its asset base spans an extensive network across the United States, connecting producing regions, processing centers, petrochemical hubs and coastal and inland markets.