J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Increases Position in Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET) by 37.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 51,757 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 14,182 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Energy Transfer were worth $714,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Alps Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 14.5% in the 3rd 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. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 38.3% in the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 25,621,485 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $353,576,000 after purchasing an additional 7,097,074 shares during the period. UBS Group AG raised its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 25,274,342 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $354,599,000 after purchasing an additional 953,251 shares during the period. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 15,222,571 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $210,071,000 after purchasing an additional 1,060,322 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 31.1% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 12,378,222 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $173,666,000 after purchasing an additional 2,933,353 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 38.22% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ET has been the topic of a number of research reports. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Energy Transfer from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Energy Transfer from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and set a $19.00 target price (up previously from $18.00) on shares of Energy Transfer in a report on Thursday, April 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.00.

Energy Transfer Stock Up 0.4 %

ET opened at $15.84 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $15.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $14.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $53.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.53 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 0.88. Energy Transfer LP has a one year low of $12.18 and a one year high of $16.04.

Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The pipeline company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $20.53 billion during 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 revenue for the quarter was up .2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.34 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Energy Transfer LP will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Energy Transfer Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 20th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 7th were given a dividend of $0.315 per share. This is a positive change from Energy Transfer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. This represents a $1.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.95%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 6th. Energy Transfer’s payout ratio is 115.60%.

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.