Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) Trading 1.5% Higher – What’s Next?

Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET)’s share price shot up 1.5% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $19.23 and last traded at $19.13. 17,110,665 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 7% from the average session volume of 16,017,832 shares. The stock had previously closed at $18.84.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on ET shares. Royal Bank Of Canada raised shares of Energy Transfer to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 15th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Energy Transfer from $21.00 to $19.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 2nd. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $22.00 target price (down from $25.00) on shares of Energy Transfer in a report on Monday, January 12th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.20.

Energy Transfer Stock Down 0.5%

The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $17.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $17.23. 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 firm has a market cap of $64.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.51, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.63.

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

Energy Transfer Increases Dividend

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

Institutional Trading of Energy Transfer

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of ET. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in Energy Transfer by 41.6% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 86,310,272 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,423,256,000 after purchasing an additional 25,366,594 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Energy Transfer by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 83,843,087 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,382,573,000 after purchasing an additional 6,192,066 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Energy Transfer by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 57,862,666 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $992,923,000 after purchasing an additional 1,773,042 shares during the period. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. boosted its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 38,675,828 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $637,764,000 after buying an additional 103,245 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Energy Income Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 1.4% in the third quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 23,351,183 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $400,706,000 after buying an additional 326,653 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 38.22% of the company’s stock.

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.