UGI (NYSE:UGI) Earns Hold Rating from Jefferies Financial Group

UGI (NYSE:UGI)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reissued by investment analysts at Jefferies Financial Group in a research note issued on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. They presently have a $40.00 target price on the utilities provider’s stock, down from their previous target price of $45.00. Jefferies Financial Group’s price target indicates a potential upside of 13.11% from the stock’s previous close.

Separately, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of UGI in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, UGI presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.00.

UGI Price Performance

UGI opened at $35.37 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $36.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $36.87. UGI has a 12-month low of $31.62 and a 12-month high of $41.34. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The firm has a market cap of $7.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.05 and a beta of 0.96.

UGI (NYSE:UGI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The utilities provider reported $1.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.50 by ($0.24). UGI had a return on equity of 14.46% and a net margin of 8.17%.The firm had revenue of $2.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.37 EPS. UGI’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that UGI will post 3.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other UGI news, CAO Jean Felix Tematio sold 12,840 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.07, for a total transaction of $488,818.80. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 6,952 shares in the company, valued at $264,662.64. This represents a 64.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.57% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On UGI

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its holdings in UGI by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 3,191,444 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $119,456,000 after purchasing an additional 327,511 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in UGI by 14.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 930,787 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $30,781,000 after purchasing an additional 116,372 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its holdings in shares of UGI by 17.2% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 785,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $25,971,000 after acquiring an additional 115,409 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its holdings in shares of UGI by 8.9% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 227,467 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,514,000 after acquiring an additional 18,652 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Foster & Motley Inc. increased its holdings in shares of UGI by 9.2% in the 1st quarter. Foster & Motley Inc. now owns 180,398 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,570,000 after acquiring an additional 15,211 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.34% of the company’s stock.

About UGI

UGI Corporation (NYSE: UGI) is a publicly traded energy distribution company headquartered in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1882 as the United Gas Improvement Company, UGI has grown into a diversified provider of energy products and services. The company’s operations are organized into three primary segments—AmeriGas Propane, UGI Utilities and UGI International—each focused on the delivery of propane, natural gas and related services to residential, commercial and industrial customers.

AmeriGas Propane, UGI’s largest segment, is the leading retail propane distributor in the United States with a network of dealers serving customers in all 50 states.