Enbridge Inc (NYSE:ENB) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of Enbridge Inc (NYSE:ENB) (TSE:ENB) have received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the twelve research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation and six have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $63.00.

Several analysts have issued reports on ENB shares. Zacks Research lowered Enbridge from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on Enbridge from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Scotiabank reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating on shares of Enbridge in a report on Monday. Cibc World Mkts lowered shares of Enbridge from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Enbridge from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Enbridge

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ENB. Mutual Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Enbridge by 25.3% in the second quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC now owns 51,995 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,338,000 after purchasing an additional 10,488 shares during the last quarter. 111 Capital purchased a new position in shares of Enbridge in the second quarter worth about $1,887,000. Loudon Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Enbridge by 40.6% in the second quarter. Loudon Investment Management LLC now owns 29,801 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,351,000 after buying an additional 8,600 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of Enbridge by 37.7% in the 2nd quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 71,834 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,256,000 after acquiring an additional 19,655 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Enbridge by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,142,927 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $187,705,000 after acquiring an additional 32,268 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 54.60% of the company’s stock.

Enbridge Stock Performance

Shares of ENB stock opened at $47.86 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.75. The firm has a market cap of $104.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.58, a P/E/G ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 0.76. Enbridge has a 52 week low of $39.73 and a 52 week high of $50.54. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $48.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $46.83.

Enbridge (NYSE:ENB) (TSE:ENB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The pipeline company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by ($0.06). Enbridge had a return on equity of 10.77% and a net margin of 10.11%.The company had revenue of $7 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.45 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.55 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Enbridge will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Enbridge Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 14th will be paid a $0.9425 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 14th. This represents a $3.77 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.9%. This is a positive change from Enbridge’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. Enbridge’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 147.25%.

About Enbridge

Enbridge Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy infrastructure company. The company operates through five segments: Liquids Pipelines, Gas Transmission and Midstream, Gas Distribution and Storage, Renewable Power Generation, and Energy Services. The Liquids Pipelines segment operates pipelines and related terminals to transport various grades of crude oil and other liquid hydrocarbons in Canada and the United States.