Short Interest in Enbridge Inc. (NYSE:ENB) Increases By 9.4%

Enbridge Inc. (NYSE:ENB) (TSE:ENB) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 26,810,000 shares, an increase of 9.4% from the March 31st total of 24,510,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 5,910,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.5 days. Approximately 1.3% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Enbridge

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund lifted its holdings in shares of Enbridge by 98.4% in the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 1,644,850 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $54,578,000 after buying an additional 815,850 shares in the last quarter. Clarius Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Enbridge by 25.2% in the fourth quarter. Clarius Group LLC now owns 8,031 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $289,000 after buying an additional 1,617 shares in the last quarter. S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Enbridge by 81.1% in the fourth quarter. S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC now owns 229,663 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $8,272,000 after buying an additional 102,850 shares in the last quarter. Private Trust Co. NA lifted its holdings in shares of Enbridge by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 8,834 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $318,000 after buying an additional 473 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Enbridge by 5.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 81,491,857 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,704,715,000 after buying an additional 4,400,848 shares in the last quarter. 54.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Enbridge Stock Performance

NYSE ENB traded down $0.35 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $35.61. 2,885,077 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,775,216. The stock has a market capitalization of $75.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.13, a PEG ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.84. Enbridge has a 12-month low of $31.03 and a 12-month high of $40.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.83. The business has a 50 day moving average of $35.22 and a 200-day moving average of $34.85.

Enbridge (NYSE:ENB) (TSE:ENB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 9th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.03). Enbridge had a net margin of 13.97% and a return on equity of 10.23%. The business had revenue of $8.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.62 billion. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Enbridge will post 2.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Enbridge Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be issued a $0.677 dividend. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.60%. This is an increase from Enbridge’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 14th. Enbridge’s dividend payout ratio is presently 129.05%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Enbridge in a research report on Tuesday, February 27th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Stifel Nicolaus started coverage on shares of Enbridge in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $55.20.

Enbridge Company Profile

Enbridge Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy infrastructure company. The company operates through five segments: Liquids Pipelines, Gas Transmission and Midstream, Gas Distribution and Storage, Renewable Power Generation, and Energy Services. The Liquids Pipelines segment operates pipelines and related terminals to transport various grades of crude oil and other liquid hydrocarbons in Canada and the United States.