Energy Transfer Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:ET)

Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders purchased 71,088 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 78% compared to the typical volume of 39,992 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Energy Transfer

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in Energy Transfer by 93.4% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 24,530 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $481,000 after purchasing an additional 11,844 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 62.8% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 21,041 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $391,000 after buying an additional 8,118 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 6.2% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 135,395 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,455,000 after buying an additional 7,901 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Energy Transfer by 436.5% in the second quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 4,179 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $76,000 after buying an additional 3,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Guggenheim Capital LLC grew its holdings in Energy Transfer by 5.6% during the second quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 50,919 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $923,000 after acquiring an additional 2,700 shares during the period. 38.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ET has been the subject of several research reports. Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a report on Friday, June 5th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $23.00 price objective (up from $22.00) on shares of Energy Transfer in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $23.00 target price (up from $22.00) on shares of Energy Transfer in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Energy Transfer from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Energy Transfer presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $23.50.

Energy Transfer Stock Up 0.0%

NYSE:ET traded up $0.01 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $20.20. 8,185,698 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 13,683,343. Energy Transfer has a 12-month low of $16.18 and a 12-month high of $20.70. The business has a 50-day moving average of $19.54 and a two-hundred day moving average of $19.04. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $69.53 billion, a PE ratio of 16.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 0.55.

Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analysts’ expectations of $25.78 billion. Energy Transfer had a return on equity of 9.77% and a net margin of 4.66%.Energy Transfer’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.36 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Energy Transfer will post 1.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Energy Transfer Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 19th. Investors of record on Friday, August 7th will be paid a $0.34 dividend. This is a boost from Energy Transfer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 7th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.7%. Energy Transfer’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 112.50%.

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.