Energy Transfer LP $ET Shares Purchased by North Star Investment Management Corp.

North Star Investment Management Corp. increased its position in shares of Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET) by 39.0% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 224,439 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 62,916 shares during the quarter. North Star Investment Management Corp.’s holdings in Energy Transfer were worth $4,332,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ET. Morgan Stanley increased 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 acquiring an additional 25,366,594 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Energy Transfer by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 83,843,087 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,382,573,000 after purchasing an additional 6,192,066 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Energy Transfer by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 57,862,666 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $992,923,000 after purchasing an additional 1,773,042 shares during the last quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. increased its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 103,245 shares during the period. Finally, Energy Income Partners LLC increased its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 326,653 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 38.22% of the company’s stock.

Energy Transfer Stock Down 0.0%

Shares of NYSE:ET opened at $19.16 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $65.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.97, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.55. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $19.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.51. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. Energy Transfer LP has a fifty-two week low of $16.18 and a fifty-two week high of $20.70.

Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analysts’ expectations of $25.78 billion. Energy Transfer had a return on equity of 9.77% and a net margin of 4.66%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.36 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Energy Transfer LP will post 1.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Energy Transfer Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 8th were paid a dividend of $0.3375 per share. This is a positive change from Energy Transfer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 8th. This represents a $1.35 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.0%. Energy Transfer’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 112.50%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ET has been the subject of several recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Energy Transfer from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and issued a $23.00 price target (up from $22.00) on shares of Energy Transfer in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $23.00 target price (up from $22.00) on shares of Energy Transfer in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $23.45.

Energy Transfer Profile

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.