Vise Technologies Inc. Makes New Investment in UGI Corporation $UGI

Vise Technologies Inc. purchased a new stake in UGI Corporation (NYSE:UGI) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 14,942 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $516,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. MSH Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in UGI during the second quarter valued at $1,961,000. Csenge Advisory Group purchased a new position in UGI during the second quarter worth about $1,014,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC bought a new position in UGI in the 2nd quarter worth about $3,537,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in UGI by 75.7% in the 2nd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 1,335,508 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $46,130,000 after acquiring an additional 575,239 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of UGI in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,696,000. 82.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on UGI shares. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and set a $40.00 price objective (down from $45.00) on shares of UGI in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of UGI from a “buy (b)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of UGI from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 15th. Zacks Research lowered shares of UGI from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, July 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of UGI from $45.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $42.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Kathleen Shea-Ballay sold 25,360 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.62, for a total transaction of $852,603.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 25,360 shares in the company, valued at $852,603.20. This represents a 50.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

UGI Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of UGI opened at $38.18 on Tuesday. UGI Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $31.62 and a fifty-two week high of $41.34. The firm has a market cap of $8.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.77 and a beta of 0.93. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $35.76 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.44.

UGI (NYSE:UGI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported ($0.20) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.08) by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $1.33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.50 billion. UGI had a net margin of 9.20% and a return on equity of 12.80%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that UGI Corporation will post 2.85 earnings per share for the current year.

UGI Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.375 per share. This represents a $1.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. UGI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.17%.

UGI Company Profile

UGI Corporation (NYSE: UGI) is a publicly traded energy distribution company headquartered in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1882 as the United Gas Improvement Company, UGI has grown into a diversified provider of energy products and services. The company’s operations are organized into three primary segments—AmeriGas Propane, UGI Utilities and UGI International—each focused on the delivery of propane, natural gas and related services to residential, commercial and industrial customers.

AmeriGas Propane, UGI’s largest segment, is the leading retail propane distributor in the United States with a network of dealers serving customers in all 50 states.