Enbridge Inc (NYSE:ENB) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Enbridge Inc (NYSE:ENB) (TSE:ENB) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the thirteen ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $60.50.

Several research firms have commented on ENB. CIBC downgraded shares of Enbridge from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Enbridge from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Cibc World Mkts downgraded shares of Enbridge from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Enbridge from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Finally, Scotiabank reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating on shares of Enbridge in a research note on Monday, October 20th.

Enbridge Trading Down 0.6%

ENB stock opened at $46.90 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $102.27 billion, a PE ratio of 23.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.32 and a beta of 0.78. Enbridge has a one year low of $39.73 and a one year high of $50.54. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $48.44 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $46.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.75.

Enbridge (NYSE:ENB) (TSE:ENB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The pipeline company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $7.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.56 billion. Enbridge had a net margin of 10.11% and a return on equity of 10.77%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.58 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Enbridge will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Enbridge Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 1st. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were paid a $0.6839 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. This is a positive change from Enbridge’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. This represents a $2.74 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.8%. Enbridge’s payout ratio is presently 134.98%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Enbridge in the second quarter valued at $1,113,368,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Enbridge by 137.9% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 32,907,433 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,458,128,000 after acquiring an additional 19,074,827 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Enbridge in the first quarter valued at $208,490,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its holdings in Enbridge by 38.7% in the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 13,213,321 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $599,556,000 after acquiring an additional 3,687,334 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Enbridge by 3.5% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,404,986 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $4,371,580,000 after acquiring an additional 3,217,961 shares in the last quarter. 54.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.