James Richard Perry Acquires 12,359 Shares of Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) Stock

Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET) Director James Richard Perry bought 12,359 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 7th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $20.23 per share, with a total value of $250,022.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 208,046 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,770.58. This represents a 6.32% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Energy Transfer Trading Up 2.4%

NYSE:ET traded up $0.49 on Monday, reaching $20.62. 11,696,564 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,569,921. The firm has a market capitalization of $70.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.55. Energy Transfer LP has a 52-week low of $16.18 and a 52-week high of $20.81. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45. The business has a fifty day moving average of $19.63 and a 200-day moving average of $19.22.

Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.21. Energy Transfer had a net margin of 4.87% and a return on equity of 11.55%. The firm had revenue of $34.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $27.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.32 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 78.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Energy Transfer LP will post 1.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Energy Transfer Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 7th will be given a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 7th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.6%. This is a boost from Energy Transfer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. Energy Transfer’s dividend payout ratio is 92.52%.

Institutional Trading of Energy Transfer

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ET. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in Energy Transfer by 41.6% in the fourth 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 last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 6,192,066 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 3.2% during the third 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 position in shares of Energy Transfer by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 38,675,828 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $637,764,000 after purchasing an additional 103,245 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 5.7% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 30,956,358 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $597,458,000 after purchasing an additional 1,656,609 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 38.22% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on ET shares. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $23.00 target price (up from $21.00) on shares of Energy Transfer in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Energy Transfer from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $23.75.

About Energy Transfer

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.