Jefferies Financial Group Begins Coverage on Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD)

Investment analysts at Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD) in a note issued to investors on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm set a “hold” rating and a $33.00 price target on the oil and gas producer’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 2.91% from the company’s current price.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Raymond James Financial cut shares of Enterprise Products Partners from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $36.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 5th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $32.00 price objective on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a research report on Friday, December 19th. Scotiabank dropped their target price on Enterprise Products Partners from $35.00 to $34.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $36.00 price target (up from $35.00) on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $35.08.

Enterprise Products Partners Stock Up 0.6%

Enterprise Products Partners stock opened at $32.07 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $31.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $31.61. The company has a market capitalization of $69.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.10, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.88. Enterprise Products Partners has a fifty-two week low of $27.77 and a fifty-two week high of $34.53.

Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $12.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.83 billion. Enterprise Products Partners had a net margin of 10.92% and a return on equity of 19.40%. Enterprise Products Partners’s quarterly revenue was down 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.65 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Enterprise Products Partners will post 2.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Enterprise Products Partners announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, October 30th that permits the company to buyback $5.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the oil and gas producer to buy up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Enterprise Products Partners

In other news, Director John R. Rutherford acquired 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 29th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $32.09 per share, with a total value of $481,350.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 173,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,570,374.74. This trade represents a 9.46% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 32.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Enterprise Products Partners

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Enterprise Products Partners in the third quarter valued at $292,194,000. Energy Income Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Enterprise Products Partners by 14.3% in the 2nd quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 14,624,238 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $453,498,000 after buying an additional 1,834,659 shares in the last quarter. Northside Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Enterprise Products Partners during the 2nd quarter valued at about $47,628,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its position in Enterprise Products Partners by 119.4% during the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,414,035 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $74,859,000 after acquiring an additional 1,313,976 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Berkley W R Corp raised its position in shares of Enterprise Products Partners by 17.9% during the 3rd quarter. Berkley W R Corp now owns 6,000,000 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $187,620,000 after purchasing an additional 910,206 shares during the last quarter. 26.07% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Enterprise Products Partners Company Profile

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE: EPD) is a Houston-based master limited partnership that provides midstream energy services across North America. The company owns and operates an extensive network of pipelines, storage facilities, processing plants and export terminals that transport and handle natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), crude oil and refined and petrochemical products. Its core activities include gathering and transportation, fractionation of NGLs, natural gas processing, crude oil and condensate pipelines, and marine and terminal services that enable domestic distribution and exports.

Enterprise serves a diverse set of customers including producers, refiners, petrochemical companies, marketers and end users.