Bollard Group LLC Sells 104,257 Shares of Energy Transfer LP $ET

Key Points

• Bollard Group LLC reduced its Energy Transfer stake by 11.4% in the fourth quarter, selling 104,257 shares and ending with 810,912 shares valued at about $13.37 million.
• Energy Transfer reported mixed quarterly results, posting $0.35 EPS versus the $0.40 estimate, but revenue came in above expectations at $27.77 billion and rose 32.1% year over year.
• The company increased its dividend to a quarterly payment of $0.3375, implying a 7.1% annualized yield, while analysts remain broadly positive with an average “Buy” rating and a $23.45 target price.

Bollard Group LLC lessened its stake in shares of Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET - Free Report) by 11.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 810,912 shares of the pipeline company's stock after selling 104,257 shares during the period. Bollard Group LLC's holdings in Energy Transfer were worth $13,372,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 41.6% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 86,310,272 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $1,423,256,000 after purchasing an additional 25,366,594 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 83,843,087 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $1,382,573,000 after purchasing an additional 6,192,066 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 57,862,666 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $992,923,000 after purchasing an additional 1,773,042 shares during the last quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 23,351,183 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $400,706,000 after purchasing an additional 326,653 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 21,898,420 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $375,777,000 after purchasing an additional 544,944 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 38.22% of the company's stock.

Energy Transfer Stock Up 1.6%

Shares of NYSE:ET opened at $19.06 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. Energy Transfer LP has a 12 month low of $16.18 and a 12 month high of $20.70. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $19.44 and a 200 day moving average price of $18.34. The company has a market cap of $65.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.88, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.55.

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

Energy Transfer Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 8th were paid a $0.3375 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 8th. This is an increase from Energy Transfer's previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.35 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.1%. Energy Transfer's payout ratio is 112.50%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on ET. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Energy Transfer from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, March 13th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Energy Transfer from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a report on Friday, June 5th. Citigroup reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $23.00 price target (up from $22.00) on shares of Energy Transfer in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Scotiabank reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Two 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 company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $23.45.

Energy Transfer 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.

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.