Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the fourteen ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $36.00.

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of Enterprise Products Partners from $35.00 to $34.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Enterprise Products Partners from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Enterprise Products Partners from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Enterprise Products Partners

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of Enterprise Products Partners by 19.9% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 32,620 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,023,000 after acquiring an additional 5,425 shares during the period. AE Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Enterprise Products Partners by 23.1% in the 1st quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 52,505 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,792,000 after purchasing an additional 9,860 shares during the period. Carnegie Investment Counsel grew its holdings in Enterprise Products Partners by 204.7% during the 1st quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 37,639 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,201,000 after buying an additional 25,288 shares in the last quarter. Principle Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Enterprise Products Partners by 20.9% during the first quarter. Principle Wealth Partners LLC now owns 11,136 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $380,000 after buying an additional 1,925 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brookwood Investment Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Enterprise Products Partners in the first quarter worth $592,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 26.07% of the company’s stock.

Enterprise Products Partners Trading Up 1.7%

Shares of EPD stock opened at $32.42 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. Enterprise Products Partners has a 12-month low of $27.77 and a 12-month high of $34.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $70.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.67. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $31.30 and its 200 day moving average is $31.41.

Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.68 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $12.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.83 billion. Enterprise Products Partners had a net margin of 10.71% and a return on equity of 19.81%. Enterprise Products Partners’s quarterly revenue was down 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.65 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Enterprise Products Partners will post 2.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Enterprise Products Partners Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 31st were paid a $0.545 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 31st. This represents a $2.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.7%. Enterprise Products Partners’s dividend payout ratio is 82.26%.

Enterprise Products Partners announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, October 30th that permits the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the oil and gas producer to repurchase up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.