Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC Purchases New Shares in Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET)

Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC bought a new stake in shares of Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 243,897 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $478,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new stake in Energy Transfer in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new position in Energy Transfer during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. United Community Bank bought a new position in Energy Transfer in the 4th quarter worth about $35,000. Financial Life Planners acquired a new stake in Energy Transfer in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Finally, Tortoise Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Energy Transfer by 111.1% in the fourth quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 1,900 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 38.22% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Energy Transfer from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $23.00 price objective on shares of Energy Transfer in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Energy Transfer from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.09.

Energy Transfer Trading Down 0.9%

ET opened at $17.22 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $17.46 and a 200 day simple moving average of $18.53. Energy Transfer LP has a fifty-two week low of $14.60 and a fifty-two week high of $21.45. The company has a market cap of $59.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.03. Energy Transfer had a net margin of 5.74% and a return on equity of 11.56%. The business had revenue of $21.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $22.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.32 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Energy Transfer LP will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Energy Transfer Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 20th. Investors of record on Friday, May 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.3275 per share. This represents a $1.31 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.61%. This is an increase from Energy Transfer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.33. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 9th. Energy Transfer’s payout ratio is presently 99.24%.

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.