Investors Purchase High Volume of Enbridge Put Options (NYSE:ENB)

Enbridge Inc (NYSE:ENB) (TSE:ENB) saw some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders purchased 20,216 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 1,036% compared to the average daily volume of 1,779 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Enbridge by 83.1% during the second quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 2,301,067 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $104,284,000 after buying an additional 1,044,093 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Enbridge by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,142,927 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $187,705,000 after acquiring an additional 32,268 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in shares of Enbridge by 15.3% in the 3rd quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,676,947 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $83,176,000 after acquiring an additional 221,976 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Enbridge by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 339,147 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $17,113,000 after acquiring an additional 24,165 shares during the period. Finally, Aviva PLC boosted its stake in Enbridge by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 1,785,676 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $80,959,000 after acquiring an additional 112,305 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.60% of the company’s stock.

Enbridge Price Performance

NYSE ENB opened at $50.88 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $111.00 billion, a PE ratio of 22.12 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $48.22 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $48.11. Enbridge has a 12-month low of $39.73 and a 12-month high of $54.19.

Enbridge (NYSE:ENB) (TSE:ENB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 13th. The pipeline company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $17.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.10 billion. Enbridge had a net margin of 11.30% and a return on equity of 11.19%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.75 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Enbridge will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Enbridge Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.97 per share. This represents a $3.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.6%. This is an increase from Enbridge’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.94. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 17th. Enbridge’s dividend payout ratio is 120.87%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on ENB. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Enbridge from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on Enbridge from $72.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Enbridge in a research report on Tuesday. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Enbridge from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Enbridge from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $65.00.

Enbridge Company Profile

Enbridge Inc is a Calgary, Alberta–based energy infrastructure company that develops, owns and operates a diversified portfolio of energy transportation, distribution and generation assets. Its core activities include the operation of crude oil and liquids pipelines, natural gas transmission and distribution systems, and energy storage facilities. In addition to midstream transportation and storage, Enbridge has expanded into renewable power generation and energy transition projects, including wind, solar and utility-scale generation assets.

The company serves customers primarily in Canada and the United States and has interests in other international energy projects.