Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) Trading 1.6% Higher – Time to Buy?

Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET)’s share price traded up 1.6% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $19.22 and last traded at $19.0610. 8,261,105 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 45% from the average session volume of 15,111,924 shares. The stock had previously closed at $18.76.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ET. Jefferies Financial Group raised Energy Transfer from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $23.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a report on Friday, June 5th. Scotiabank restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Energy Transfer from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Energy Transfer from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $23.45.

Energy Transfer Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $65.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.17. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $19.44 and its two-hundred day moving average is $18.33.

Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.40 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $27.77 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.78 billion. Energy Transfer had a return on equity of 9.77% and a net margin of 4.66%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 32.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.36 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Energy Transfer LP will post 1.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Energy Transfer Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 20th. Investors of record on Friday, May 8th were issued a $0.3375 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 8th. This represents a $1.35 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.1%. This is an increase from Energy Transfer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. Energy Transfer’s payout ratio is currently 112.50%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Keybank National Association OH boosted its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 219,232 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $4,231,000 after purchasing an additional 556 shares during the last quarter. Mountain Capital Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Mountain Capital Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 12,007 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $216,000 after purchasing an additional 560 shares during the last quarter. Marks Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. Marks Wealth LLC now owns 12,560 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $207,000 after purchasing an additional 560 shares during the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI boosted its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 23,978 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $463,000 after purchasing an additional 562 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Avos Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Avos Capital Management LLC now owns 76,695 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,265,000 after purchasing an additional 583 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 38.22% of the company’s stock.

Energy Transfer Company Profile

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.