Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD) Upgraded to Hold at Wolfe Research

Key Points

• Wolfe Research upgraded Enterprise Products Partners (EPD) from a "strong sell" to a "hold", and several other firms have raised ratings or price targets; MarketBeat's consensus rating is a "Moderate Buy" with a $38.27 price target.
• EPD beat quarterly expectations with EPS of $0.75 versus $0.69 and revenue of $13.79 billion (above the $12.44B estimate); the stock trades near $37 with a market cap of about $80.5 billion and a P/E of 14.0.
• Insider and institutional interest is notable: CEO Aj Teague purchased 2,665 shares at roughly $37.55, insiders own 32.6% of the company, and major institutions including Auto Owners, Goldman Sachs and Barclays materially increased positions.

Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD - Get Free Report) was upgraded by analysts at Wolfe Research from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on EPD. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Enterprise Products Partners from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $40.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 25th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Enterprise Products Partners from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, March 30th. TD Cowen reiterated a "hold" rating and set a $38.00 price objective (up from $34.00) on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Enterprise Products Partners from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $38.27.

Enterprise Products Partners Price Performance

Enterprise Products Partners stock opened at $37.26 on Tuesday. Enterprise Products Partners has a 1 year low of $29.66 and a 1 year high of $39.74. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $37.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $33.92. The company has a market cap of $80.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.01, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.04.

Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, February 2nd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.06. Enterprise Products Partners had a net margin of 11.05% and a return on equity of 19.33%. The firm 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 firm earned $0.74 earnings per share. Enterprise Products Partners's revenue was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Enterprise Products Partners will post 2.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Enterprise Products Partners

In other news, CEO Aj Teague bought 2,665 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 20th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $37.55 per share, for a total transaction of $100,070.75. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer owned 77,576 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,912,978.80. This trade represents a 3.56% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 32.60% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Auto Owners Insurance Co raised its holdings in Enterprise Products Partners by 3,106.0% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 32,060,000 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $102,784,000 after acquiring an additional 31,060,000 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new stake in Enterprise Products Partners in the third quarter valued at $292,194,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in Enterprise Products Partners by 12.0% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 18,163,343 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $582,317,000 after acquiring an additional 1,940,583 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Enterprise Products Partners by 119.4% in the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,414,035 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $74,859,000 after acquiring an additional 1,313,976 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its holdings in Enterprise Products Partners by 57.5% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 2,928,068 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $93,874,000 after acquiring an additional 1,069,304 shares in the last quarter. 26.07% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Enterprise Products Partners

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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