StockNews.com Lowers Ultrapar Participações (NYSE:UGP) to Buy

Ultrapar Participações (NYSE:UGP) was downgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Thursday.

UGP has been the subject of several other reports. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Ultrapar Participações from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $4.50 to $4.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 12th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Ultrapar Participações in a research report on Thursday, September 21st. They set an “underperform” rating and a $3.30 price objective for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ultrapar Participações presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $3.70.

Ultrapar Participações Trading Down 0.4 %

Ultrapar Participações stock opened at $4.44 on Thursday. Ultrapar Participações has a 52 week low of $2.18 and a 52 week high of $4.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a current ratio of 1.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.50, a PEG ratio of 4.09 and a beta of 1.39. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $3.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $3.70.

Ultrapar Participações (NYSE:UGP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 9th. The oil and gas company reported $0.04 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by ($0.01). Ultrapar Participações had a return on equity of 12.02% and a net margin of 1.01%. The business had revenue of $5.98 billion for the quarter. Analysts expect that Ultrapar Participações will post 0.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Ultrapar Participações

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Profund Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Ultrapar Participações by 15.3% in the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 26,308 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $103,000 after buying an additional 3,497 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Ultrapar Participações by 13.2% in the second quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 31,681 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $125,000 after buying an additional 3,705 shares during the last quarter. Wetherby Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Ultrapar Participações by 21.2% in the first quarter. Wetherby Asset Management Inc. now owns 25,634 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $70,000 after buying an additional 4,486 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA raised its holdings in Ultrapar Participações by 19.6% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA now owns 38,898 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $118,000 after buying an additional 6,383 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS Group AG raised its holdings in Ultrapar Participações by 27.6% in the first quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 32,143 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $88,000 after buying an additional 6,945 shares during the last quarter. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ultrapar Participações Company Profile

Ultrapar Participações SA operates in the energy and infrastructure business in in Brazil, Europe, Singapore, the United States, Canada, other Latin American countries, and internationally. The company distributes liquefied petroleum gas to residential, commercial, and industrial consumers; and renewable electricity and compressed natural gas.