Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC Invests $1.93 Million in Energy Transfer LP $ET

Key Points

• Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors initiated a new position in Energy Transfer LP during the first quarter, buying 100,000 shares valued at about $1.93 million.
• Institutional interest remains strong, with hedge funds and other investors owning 38.22% of the stock; several large firms, including Morgan Stanley and Alps Advisors, also increased their stakes.
• Wall Street sentiment is broadly positive: analysts currently rate ET a “Buy” on average with a consensus price target of $23.55, while the company also recently raised its quarterly dividend to $0.3375 per share.

Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 100,000 shares of the pipeline company's stock, valued at approximately $1,930,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in Energy Transfer by 41.6% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 86,310,272 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $1,423,256,000 after buying an additional 25,366,594 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 83,843,087 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $1,382,573,000 after acquiring an additional 6,192,066 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 3.2% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 57,862,666 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $992,923,000 after acquiring an additional 1,773,042 shares during the period. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. grew its position in shares of Energy Transfer by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 38,675,828 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $637,764,000 after acquiring an additional 103,245 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Energy Income Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Energy Transfer by 1.4% during the third quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 23,351,183 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $400,706,000 after acquiring an additional 326,653 shares during the last quarter. 38.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on ET. Weiss Ratings restated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $23.00 target price (up from $22.00) on shares of Energy Transfer in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Raymond James Financial restated a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Energy Transfer from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Scotiabank reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Energy Transfer currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $23.55.

Energy Transfer Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ET opened at $20.30 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.17. Energy Transfer LP has a one year low of $16.18 and a one year high of $20.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $69.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.92, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.55. The company's fifty day moving average is $19.52 and its two-hundred day moving average is $18.84.

Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.40 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $27.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $25.78 billion. Energy Transfer had a net margin of 4.66% and a return on equity of 9.77%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 32.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.36 EPS. Analysts forecast that Energy Transfer LP will post 1.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Energy Transfer Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 8th were paid a dividend of $0.3375 per share. This is an increase from Energy Transfer's previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.35 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 8th. Energy Transfer's payout ratio is 112.50%.

Energy Transfer Company Profile

Energy Transfer NYSE: ET is a Dallas-based midstream energy company that develops and operates infrastructure for the transportation, storage and processing of hydrocarbons. The company's operations focus on moving and storing natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), crude oil and refined products through an integrated network of pipelines, terminals, storage facilities and processing plants. Energy Transfer provides core midstream services such as gathering, compression, fractionation, processing, and bulk transportation to support production and downstream supply chains.

Its asset base spans an extensive network across the United States, connecting producing regions, processing centers, petrochemical hubs and coastal and inland markets.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding ET? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.