Empirical Finance LLC Purchases 652,711 Shares of Energy Transfer LP $ET

Empirical Finance LLC boosted its position in shares of Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ETFree Report) by 86.8% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,404,756 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 652,711 shares during the quarter. Energy Transfer accounts for 1.3% of Empirical Finance LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest holding. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Energy Transfer were worth $27,112,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 41.6% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 86,310,272 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,423,256,000 after purchasing an additional 25,366,594 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. increased its position in Energy Transfer by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 83,843,087 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,382,573,000 after buying an additional 6,192,066 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Energy Transfer by 3.2% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 57,862,666 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $992,923,000 after buying an additional 1,773,042 shares during the period. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. lifted its position in shares of Energy Transfer by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 38,675,828 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $637,764,000 after buying an additional 103,245 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Energy Income Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Energy Transfer by 1.4% in the third quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 23,351,183 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $400,706,000 after buying an additional 326,653 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 38.22% of the company’s stock.

Energy Transfer Price Performance

Energy Transfer stock opened at $20.38 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $70.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.98, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. Energy Transfer LP has a 12 month low of $16.18 and a 12 month high of $20.70. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $19.55 and its 200-day moving average is $18.97.

Energy Transfer (NYSE:ETGet Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.40 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $27.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.78 billion. Energy Transfer had a return on equity of 9.77% and a net margin of 4.66%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.36 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Energy Transfer LP will post 1.43 EPS for the current year.

Energy Transfer Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 8th were issued a dividend of $0.3375 per share. This is an increase from Energy Transfer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.35 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 8th. Energy Transfer’s payout ratio is 112.50%.

Key Headlines Impacting Energy Transfer

Here are the key news stories impacting Energy Transfer this week:

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on ET shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised Energy Transfer from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $23.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $23.00 price target (up from $22.00) on shares of Energy Transfer in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a report on Friday, June 5th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $23.50.

Check Out Our Latest Report on ET

About Energy Transfer

(Free Report)

Energy Transfer (NYSE: ET) is a Dallas-based midstream energy company that develops and operates infrastructure for the transportation, storage and processing of hydrocarbons. The company’s operations focus on moving and storing natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), crude oil and refined products through an integrated network of pipelines, terminals, storage facilities and processing plants. Energy Transfer provides core midstream services such as gathering, compression, fractionation, processing, and bulk transportation to support production and downstream supply chains.

Its asset base spans an extensive network across the United States, connecting producing regions, processing centers, petrochemical hubs and coastal and inland markets.

Further Reading

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET)

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