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

Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by Mizuho in a report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $19.00 target price on the pipeline company’s stock, up from their previous target price of $18.00. Mizuho’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 22.90% from the company’s current price.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. UBS Group reduced their price target on Energy Transfer from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Citigroup increased their price target on Energy Transfer from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $17.71.

Energy Transfer Trading Up 1.5 %

Energy Transfer stock traded up $0.23 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $15.46. The stock had a trading volume of 4,440,677 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,339,366. Energy Transfer has a twelve month low of $12.18 and a twelve month high of $16.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $52.09 billion, a PE ratio of 14.22 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.10. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $15.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $14.22.

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

Institutional Trading of Energy Transfer

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. 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 purchasing an additional 145,810,023 shares during the period. First Reserve GP XIII Ltd acquired a new stake in Energy Transfer during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $322,097,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Energy Transfer by 28.5% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 81,532,518 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,125,149,000 after purchasing an additional 18,087,249 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Energy Transfer by 20.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 76,339,168 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $906,146,000 after purchasing an additional 13,220,435 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alps Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Energy Transfer by 14.5% during the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 73,666,501 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,033,541,000 after purchasing an additional 9,341,798 shares in the last quarter. 38.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Energy Transfer Company Profile

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.