Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) Shares Up 1.6% After Analyst Upgrade

Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET)’s share price traded up 1.6% on Wednesday after Citigroup raised their price target on the stock from $20.00 to $22.00. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. Energy Transfer traded as high as $19.46 and last traded at $19.23. 3,888,025 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 16,943,654 shares. The stock had previously closed at $18.92.

ET has been the topic of several other reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Energy Transfer from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Energy Transfer from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Energy Transfer from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Energy Transfer from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Energy Transfer from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Energy Transfer presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.55.

Institutional Trading of Energy Transfer

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ET. Bank of Montreal Can grew its stake in shares of Energy Transfer by 12,090.8% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 12,455,613 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $244,005,000 after purchasing an additional 12,353,441 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Energy Transfer by 44.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 33,379,297 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $535,738,000 after purchasing an additional 10,195,768 shares during the last quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI bought a new stake in shares of Energy Transfer during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $79,113,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in shares of Energy Transfer by 36.7% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 11,563,478 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $185,594,000 after purchasing an additional 3,106,631 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. grew its stake in shares of Energy Transfer by 45.9% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 9,581,762 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $153,787,000 after purchasing an additional 3,013,973 shares during the last quarter. 38.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Energy Transfer Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $19.90 and its 200 day moving average price is $17.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $65.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.96, a PEG ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.69.

Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The pipeline company reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.35 by ($0.06). Energy Transfer had a net margin of 5.74% and a return on equity of 11.56%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Energy Transfer LP will post 1.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Energy Transfer Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 19th. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th were issued a $0.325 dividend. This is a positive change from Energy Transfer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.79%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. Energy Transfer’s dividend payout ratio is currently 101.56%.

About Energy Transfer

Energy Transfer LP provides energy-related services. The company owns and operates natural gas transportation pipeline, and natural gas storage facilities in Texas and Oklahoma; and approximately 20,090 miles of interstate natural gas pipeline. It also sells natural gas to electric utilities, independent power plants, local distribution and other marketing companies, and industrial end-users.