Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD) Board of Directors Approves Share Buyback Plan

Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD) declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, October 30th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $5.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the oil and gas producer to reacquire up to 7.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EPD has been the subject of a number of research reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. TD Cowen initiated coverage on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a research report on Monday, July 7th. They set a “hold” rating and a $33.00 price target for the company. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Enterprise Products Partners from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Enterprise Products Partners from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 19th. Finally, Mizuho set a $38.00 price target on shares of Enterprise Products Partners and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $35.82.

Enterprise Products Partners Stock Performance

NYSE:EPD opened at $31.55 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $31.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of $31.33. The stock has a market cap of $68.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.73, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.64. Enterprise Products Partners has a 1-year low of $27.77 and a 1-year high of $34.63.

Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $12.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.83 billion. Enterprise Products Partners had a net margin of 10.71% and a return on equity of 19.81%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.65 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Enterprise Products Partners will post 2.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Enterprise Products Partners Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 31st will be given a $0.545 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 31st. This represents a $2.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.9%. Enterprise Products Partners’s payout ratio is presently 81.04%.

About Enterprise Products Partners

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. provides midstream energy services to producers and consumers of natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), crude oil, petrochemicals, and refined products. It operates in four segments: NGL Pipelines & Services, Crude Oil Pipelines & Services, Natural Gas Pipelines & Services, and Petrochemical & Refined Products Services.