Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD) Stock Price Up 1.1% on Analyst Upgrade

Key Points

• Enterprise Products Partners stock rose 1.1% midday after Wells Fargo raised its price target to $40 (from $38); about 2.44 million shares traded, roughly 49% below average volume.
• Analysts are mixed: MarketBeat shows an average rating of Hold with an average price target of $36.71, reflecting divergent calls including Morgan Stanley's downgrade and Stifel's upgrade to a $41 target.
• Financials and payouts: EPD beat quarterly EPS and revenue (EPS $0.75 vs $0.69 expected; revenue $13.79B), increased its quarterly dividend to $0.55 (annualized yield ~5.9%), and has a market cap near $80B with a P/E around 13.9.

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD - Get Free Report)'s stock price rose 1.1% during mid-day trading on Friday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $38.00 to $40.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Enterprise Products Partners traded as high as $37.10 and last traded at $37.0050. Approximately 2,438,957 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 49% from the average daily volume of 4,790,557 shares. The stock had previously closed at $36.59.

EPD has been the subject of several other reports. Morgan Stanley cut Enterprise Products Partners from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and set a $34.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Enterprise Products Partners from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Scotiabank reissued a "sector perform" rating and issued a $37.00 target price (up from $35.00) on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $36.71.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Enterprise Products Partners news, Director John R. Rutherford acquired 15,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, December 29th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $32.09 per share, for a total transaction of $481,350.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 173,586 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,570,374.74. This represents a 9.46% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 32.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Enterprise Products Partners

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Alps Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Enterprise Products Partners by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 42,639,131 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $1,367,011,000 after purchasing an additional 260,305 shares during the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co lifted its stake in shares of Enterprise Products Partners by 3,106.0% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 32,060,000 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $102,784,000 after buying an additional 31,060,000 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Enterprise Products Partners by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 26,787,203 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $830,671,000 after buying an additional 69,505 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Enterprise Products Partners by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 19,116,333 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $612,870,000 after acquiring an additional 883,983 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Enterprise Products Partners by 1.4% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 18,652,232 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $578,406,000 after acquiring an additional 252,513 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 26.07% of the company's stock.

Enterprise Products Partners Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $80.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.59. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $34.68 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $32.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07.

Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 2nd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.06. Enterprise Products Partners had a return on equity of 19.33% and a net margin of 11.05%.The business had revenue of $13.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.74 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Enterprise Products Partners L.P. will post 2.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Enterprise Products Partners Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 30th were given a $0.55 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 30th. This is a boost from Enterprise Products Partners's previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.9%. Enterprise Products Partners's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 82.71%.

Enterprise Products Partners Company Profile

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. NYSE: EPD is a Houston-based master limited partnership that provides midstream energy services across North America. The company owns and operates an extensive network of pipelines, storage facilities, processing plants and export terminals that transport and handle natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), crude oil and refined and petrochemical products. Its core activities include gathering and transportation, fractionation of NGLs, natural gas processing, crude oil and condensate pipelines, and marine and terminal services that enable domestic distribution and exports.

Enterprise serves a diverse set of customers including producers, refiners, petrochemical companies, marketers and end users.

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