Ultrapar Participacoes (NYSE:UGP) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Ultrapar Participacoes (NYSE:UGP) was upgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Saturday.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on UGP. UBS Group initiated coverage on Ultrapar Participacoes in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $7.00 price objective for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Ultrapar Participacoes from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $5.40 price objective for the company. in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Ultrapar Participacoes from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $3.10 to $5.60 in a research note on Friday, March 13th. HSBC downgraded Ultrapar Participacoes from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $4.90 to $6.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded Ultrapar Participacoes from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $6.00.

Ultrapar Participacoes Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of NYSE UGP opened at $6.11 on Friday. Ultrapar Participacoes has a 1 year low of $2.80 and a 1 year high of $6.16. The firm has a market cap of $6.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.26, a PEG ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 1.67. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $5.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $4.68.

Ultrapar Participacoes (NYSE:UGP) last announced its earnings results on Saturday, February 14th. The oil and gas company reported $0.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Ultrapar Participacoes had a return on equity of 16.76% and a net margin of 2.04%.The business had revenue of $6.19 billion for the quarter. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ultrapar Participacoes will post 0.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ultrapar Participacoes

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda raised its holdings in Ultrapar Participacoes by 4.6% during the first quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda now owns 915,468 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $5,044,000 after purchasing an additional 40,586 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Ultrapar Participacoes by 42.7% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 945,625 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $5,210,000 after purchasing an additional 282,887 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Ultrapar Participacoes by 33.8% during the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 29,156 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $161,000 after purchasing an additional 7,366 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new stake in Ultrapar Participacoes during the first quarter worth approximately $62,000. Finally, Bleakley Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in Ultrapar Participacoes by 12.6% during the first quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 213,465 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,176,000 after purchasing an additional 23,937 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 3.58% of the company’s stock.

Ultrapar Participacoes Company Profile

Ultrapar Participações SA is a Brazilian diversified holding company operating in the downstream energy and chemical sectors. Its Ipiranga unit runs one of Brazil’s largest networks of fuel stations, supplying gasoline, ethanol, diesel and convenience-store products to retail and wholesale customers. Through Ultragaz, the company is a leading distributor of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), offering cylinder and bulk gas solutions for residential, commercial and industrial use across urban and rural regions.

In the specialty chemicals arena, Ultrapar controls Oxiteno, which produces surfactants and specialty chemical formulations for industries such as personal care, oil and gas, agrochemicals and coatings.