Energy Transfer Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:ET)

Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET) was the target of some unusual options trading on Friday. Stock traders bought 138,721 call options on the company. This is an increase of 156% compared to the average daily volume of 54,091 call options.

Institutional Trading of Energy Transfer

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted 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 acquiring an additional 145,810,023 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 28.5% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 81,532,518 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,125,149,000 after buying an additional 18,087,249 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 20.9% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 76,339,168 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $906,146,000 after buying an additional 13,220,435 shares in the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 14.5% during the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 73,666,501 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,033,541,000 after buying an additional 9,341,798 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS Group AG raised its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 13.3% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 28,642,769 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $395,270,000 after buying an additional 3,368,427 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 38.22% of the company’s stock.

Energy Transfer Price Performance

NYSE ET traded up $0.24 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $15.77. The company had a trading volume of 11,273,177 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,481,466. Energy Transfer has a 52 week low of $12.18 and a 52 week high of $16.04. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $15.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $14.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $53.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.51 and a beta of 1.64.

Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The pipeline company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.08. Energy Transfer had a return on equity of 12.17% and a net margin of 4.85%. The business had revenue of $20.53 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.46 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.34 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up .2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Energy Transfer will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Energy Transfer Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 20th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 7th were given a dividend of $0.315 per share. This represents a $1.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 6th. This is an increase from Energy Transfer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. Energy Transfer’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 115.60%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group decreased their target price on Energy Transfer from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Citigroup increased their price target on Energy Transfer from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Mizuho reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $19.00 price target (up previously from $18.00) on shares of Energy Transfer in a research note on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $18.00.

Energy Transfer Company Profile

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.