Investors Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Equitrans Midstream (NYSE:ETRN)

Equitrans Midstream Co. (NYSE:ETRN) saw some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 60,627 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 587% compared to the typical daily volume of 8,820 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $13.00 target price on shares of Equitrans Midstream in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. TheStreet upgraded Equitrans Midstream from a “d+” rating to a “c-” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 27th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Equitrans Midstream from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $9.00 to $10.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 14th. Barclays increased their price objective on Equitrans Midstream from $6.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Equitrans Midstream from $13.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $10.86.

Institutional Trading of Equitrans Midstream

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Equitrans Midstream by 1.7% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 52,615,234 shares of the company’s stock worth $304,116,000 after buying an additional 886,117 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in Equitrans Midstream by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 49,239,507 shares of the company’s stock valued at $415,696,000 after purchasing an additional 2,749,573 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Equitrans Midstream by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 47,037,992 shares of the company’s stock valued at $440,746,000 after purchasing an additional 1,572,136 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Equitrans Midstream by 1.9% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,207,093 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,897,000 after purchasing an additional 284,116 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Equitrans Midstream by 29.0% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,883,478 shares of the company’s stock worth $91,859,000 after purchasing an additional 2,444,950 shares during the last quarter. 87.35% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Equitrans Midstream Stock Down 0.8 %

ETRN opened at $12.77 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 1.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.83, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $11.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $10.20. Equitrans Midstream has a fifty-two week low of $4.60 and a fifty-two week high of $12.98.

Equitrans Midstream (NYSE:ETRN) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $360.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $348.04 million. Equitrans Midstream had a net margin of 30.89% and a return on equity of 30.41%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.13 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Equitrans Midstream will post 0.87 EPS for the current year.

Equitrans Midstream Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 14th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 6th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 5th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.70%. Equitrans Midstream’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 67.42%.

About Equitrans Midstream

Equitrans Midstream Corporation owns, operates, acquires, and develops midstream assets in the Appalachian Basin. The company operates through Gathering, Transmission, and Water segments. It operates dry gas gathering systems of high-pressure gathering lines and FERC-regulated interstate pipelines and storage systems.