Mizuho Reaffirms Buy Rating for Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET)

Mizuho reissued their buy rating on shares of Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) in a research note released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $19.00 target price on the pipeline company’s stock, up from their prior target price of $18.00.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Energy Transfer from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Energy Transfer from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Energy Transfer has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $18.00.

Energy Transfer Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of ET stock opened at $15.77 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $53.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.47 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37. Energy Transfer has a fifty-two week low of $12.18 and a fifty-two week high of $16.04. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $15.19 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $14.25.

Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The pipeline company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $20.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.46 billion. Energy Transfer had a net margin of 4.85% and a return on equity of 12.17%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.34 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Energy Transfer will post 1.46 EPS for the current year.

Energy Transfer Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 7th were paid a $0.315 dividend. This represents a $1.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 6th. This is a positive change from Energy Transfer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. Energy Transfer’s payout ratio is 115.60%.

Institutional Trading of Energy Transfer

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ET. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Energy Transfer by 109,332.4% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 145,943,387 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,732,348,000 after buying an additional 145,810,023 shares during the last quarter. First Reserve GP XIII Ltd acquired a new position in Energy Transfer in the fourth quarter worth $322,097,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Energy Transfer by 28.5% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 81,532,518 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,125,149,000 after purchasing an additional 18,087,249 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Energy Transfer by 20.9% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 76,339,168 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $906,146,000 after purchasing an additional 13,220,435 shares during the period. Finally, Alps Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Energy Transfer by 14.5% in the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 73,666,501 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,033,541,000 after purchasing an additional 9,341,798 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 38.22% of the company’s stock.

About Energy Transfer

Energy Transfer LP provides energy-related services. The company owns and operates natural gas transportation pipeline, and natural gas storage facilities in Texas and Oklahoma; and approximately 20,090 miles of interstate natural gas pipeline. It also sells natural gas to electric utilities, independent power plants, local distribution and other marketing companies, and industrial end-users.