Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nine have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $21.60.

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada raised shares of Energy Transfer to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 15th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Energy Transfer from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Energy Transfer from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Finally, Scotiabank reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a research note on Friday, January 16th.

Energy Transfer Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of ET opened at $19.21 on Monday. Energy Transfer has a 52-week low of $15.41 and a 52-week high of $19.85. The company has a market cap of $66.07 billion, a PE ratio of 15.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.62. The business has a fifty day moving average of $18.79 and a 200 day moving average of $17.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50.

Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The pipeline company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.34 by ($0.09). The business had revenue of $25.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $23.56 billion. Energy Transfer had a return on equity of 10.17% and a net margin of 5.11%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 29.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.29 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Energy Transfer will post 1.46 EPS for the current year.

Energy Transfer Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 19th. Investors of record on Friday, February 6th were paid a $0.335 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 6th. This represents a $1.34 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.0%. This is a boost from Energy Transfer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.33. Energy Transfer’s payout ratio is 110.74%.

Institutional Trading of Energy Transfer

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 41.6% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 86,310,272 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,423,256,000 after acquiring an additional 25,366,594 shares in the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 83,843,087 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,382,573,000 after acquiring an additional 6,192,066 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 3.2% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 57,862,666 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $992,923,000 after acquiring an additional 1,773,042 shares in the last quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. raised its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 38,675,828 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $637,764,000 after acquiring an additional 103,245 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Energy Income Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 1.4% in the third quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 23,351,183 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $400,706,000 after acquiring an additional 326,653 shares in the last quarter. 38.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Energy Transfer

Energy Transfer (NYSE: ET) is a Dallas-based midstream energy company that develops and operates infrastructure for the transportation, storage and processing of hydrocarbons. The company’s operations focus on moving and storing natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), crude oil and refined products through an integrated network of pipelines, terminals, storage facilities and processing plants. Energy Transfer provides core midstream services such as gathering, compression, fractionation, processing, and bulk transportation to support production and downstream supply chains.

Its asset base spans an extensive network across the United States, connecting producing regions, processing centers, petrochemical hubs and coastal and inland markets.