UGI (NYSE:UGI) Research Coverage Started at Huntington

Huntington began coverage on shares of UGI (NYSE:UGI) in a research note issued to investors on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm issued an outperform rating and a $54.00 target price on the utilities provider’s stock.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of UGI from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $40.00 to $43.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 9th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of UGI from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 29th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of UGI from a “buy (b)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of UGI from $45.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of UGI from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, July 13th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, UGI presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $45.75.

UGI Price Performance

UGI stock opened at $38.15 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $8.18 billion, a PE ratio of 12.76 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $36.94 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.12. UGI has a 12-month low of $31.62 and a 12-month high of $41.34.

UGI (NYSE:UGI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.08) by ($0.12). UGI had a net margin of 9.20% and a return on equity of 12.80%. The firm had revenue of $1.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.50 billion. As a group, research analysts predict that UGI will post 2.82 EPS for the current year.

UGI Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be given a dividend of $0.375 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $1.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. UGI’s payout ratio is 50.17%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On UGI

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in shares of UGI by 12.1% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,115,491 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $73,069,000 after purchasing an additional 228,187 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of UGI by 20.0% in the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 17,947 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $620,000 after purchasing an additional 2,987 shares during the period. WINTON GROUP Ltd boosted its stake in shares of UGI by 114.6% in the second quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd now owns 15,171 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $524,000 after purchasing an additional 8,100 shares during the period. Engineers Gate Manager LP grew its holdings in UGI by 133.7% during the 2nd quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 166,968 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,767,000 after purchasing an additional 95,512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC grew its holdings in UGI by 79.3% during the 2nd quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 28,630 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $989,000 after purchasing an additional 12,661 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.34% of the company’s stock.

About UGI

UGI Corporation (NYSE: UGI) is an energy company headquartered in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1882, the company operates through businesses that distribute and market natural gas, electricity, propane and other energy products.

Through UGI Utilities, the company provides regulated natural gas and electric service to customers in parts of Pennsylvania and regulated natural gas service in parts of Maryland. UGI also operates energy marketing, midstream and storage businesses that supply natural gas and related services to residential, commercial, industrial and wholesale customers.

UGI is also involved in propane distribution through AmeriGas, which serves customers across the United States, and through international propane operations serving customers in parts of Europe.