Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) Trading Up 2% Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET) shot up 2% during trading on Tuesday after Scotiabank raised their price target on the stock from $22.00 to $24.00. Scotiabank currently has a sector outperform rating on the stock. Energy Transfer traded as high as $20.07 and last traded at $19.9950. 14,480,462 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 12% from the average session volume of 16,413,592 shares. The stock had previously closed at $19.61.

ET has been the topic of several other research reports. Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Energy Transfer from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $22.00 price objective (down from $25.00) on shares of Energy Transfer in a report on Monday, January 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Energy Transfer from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Energy Transfer from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Energy Transfer has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.50.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Energy Transfer

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in Energy Transfer by 41.6% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 86,310,272 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,423,256,000 after buying an additional 25,366,594 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 6,192,066 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 1,773,042 shares during the period. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. increased its holdings in Energy Transfer by 0.3% in the 4th 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 period. Finally, Energy Income Partners LLC increased its holdings in Energy Transfer by 1.4% in the 3rd 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 period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 38.22% of the company’s stock.

Energy Transfer Trading Up 2.0%

The company’s fifty day moving average is $19.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $17.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.17. The company has a market cap of $68.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 0.57.

Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.40 by ($0.05). Energy Transfer had a return on equity of 9.77% and a net margin of 4.66%.The company had revenue of $27.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.78 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.36 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Energy Transfer LP will post 1.47 EPS for the current year.

Energy Transfer Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 8th will be given a $0.3375 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 8th. This represents a $1.35 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.8%. This is a boost from Energy Transfer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. Energy Transfer’s payout ratio is currently 112.50%.

Energy Transfer Company Profile

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.