225,565 Shares in Energy Transfer LP $ET Purchased by Jefferies Financial Group Inc.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Energy Transfer LP (TXSE:ET) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 225,565 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,459,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC bought a new stake in shares of Energy Transfer in the first quarter worth $61,760,000. SCS Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Energy Transfer by 1,859.8% in the 2nd quarter. SCS Capital Management LLC now owns 1,942,908 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $37,148,000 after purchasing an additional 1,843,771 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in shares of Energy Transfer by 5.7% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 30,956,358 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $597,458,000 after purchasing an additional 1,656,609 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its position in shares of Energy Transfer by 86.8% during the first quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 1,404,756 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $27,112,000 after purchasing an additional 652,711 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC lifted its position in shares of Energy Transfer by 48.8% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 1,982,403 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $38,260,000 after purchasing an additional 649,718 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 38.22% of the company’s stock.

Energy Transfer Stock Performance

Shares of TXSE ET opened at $19.42 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $20.43 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $19.73. Energy Transfer LP has a 52-week low of $16.18 and a 52-week high of $21.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $66.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.21, a P/E/G ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 0.62.

Energy Transfer (TXSE:ET) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $37.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.98 billion. Energy Transfer had a net margin of 4.87% and a return on equity of 11.55%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.28 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Energy Transfer LP will post 1.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Energy Transfer Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 19th. Investors of record on Friday, November 6th will be issued a $0.3425 dividend. This is a positive change from Energy Transfer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 6th. This represents a $1.37 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.1%. Energy Transfer’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 90.13%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ET has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus started coverage on Energy Transfer in a report on Thursday, September 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $25.00 price objective for the company. Zacks Research cut Energy Transfer from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Capital One Financial began coverage on Energy Transfer in a report on Tuesday, September 22nd. They set an “overweight” rating and a $26.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Energy Transfer from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 18th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on Energy Transfer from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $24.73.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Kelcy Warren acquired 647,968 shares of Energy Transfer stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 19th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $21.26 per share, for a total transaction of $13,775,799.68. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 147,901,879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,144,393,947.54. This trade represents a 0.44% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 3.28% of the company’s stock.

Energy Transfer Profile

Energy Transfer LP is a diversified energy infrastructure company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The partnership owns and operates a broad network of pipelines, processing facilities, storage assets and terminals that support the movement of natural gas, natural gas liquids, crude oil and refined products across the United States. The company’s operations include gathering and processing natural gas, transporting and storing natural gas and NGLs, fractionating NGLs into component products, and transporting crude oil and refined products.