Professional Financial Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 16,401 Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET)

Professional Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 16,401 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $226,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Energy Transfer by 109,332.4% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 145,943,387 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,732,348,000 after buying an additional 145,810,023 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in Energy Transfer by 20.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 76,339,168 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $906,146,000 after purchasing an additional 13,220,435 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Energy Transfer by 14.5% during the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 73,666,501 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,033,541,000 after purchasing an additional 9,341,798 shares during the period. Natixis increased its stake in shares of Energy Transfer by 9.1% in the second quarter. Natixis now owns 33,145,416 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $420,947,000 after purchasing an additional 2,767,574 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS Group AG raised its position in shares of Energy Transfer by 3.9% in the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 25,274,342 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $354,599,000 after purchasing an additional 953,251 shares during the period. 38.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Energy Transfer Price Performance

ET traded up $0.07 during trading on Thursday, reaching $15.61. 4,318,776 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,470,768. The company’s 50-day moving average is $14.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $14.01. The company has a market cap of $52.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.30 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37. Energy Transfer LP has a 12-month low of $12.06 and a 12-month high of $15.74.

Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The pipeline company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $20.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.46 billion. Energy Transfer had a return on equity of 12.17% and a net margin of 4.85%. Energy Transfer’s revenue for the quarter was up .2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.34 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Energy Transfer LP will post 1.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Energy Transfer Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 7th were given a dividend of $0.315 per share. This is a positive change from Energy Transfer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 6th. This represents a $1.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.07%. Energy Transfer’s dividend payout ratio is presently 115.60%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on ET shares. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Energy Transfer from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Energy Transfer from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $17.57.

About Energy Transfer

Energy Transfer LP provides energy-related services. The company owns and operates natural gas transportation pipeline, and natural gas storage facilities in Texas and Oklahoma; and approximately 20,090 miles of interstate natural gas pipeline. It also sells natural gas to electric utilities, independent power plants, local distribution and other marketing companies, and industrial end-users.