140,093 Shares in Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET) Bought by Strong Tower Advisory Services

Strong Tower Advisory Services bought a new stake in Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 140,093 shares of the pipeline company's stock, valued at approximately $2,604,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Energy Transfer by 15.7% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 38,634,018 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $756,840,000 after acquiring an additional 5,254,721 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP grew its position in Energy Transfer by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 23,987,750 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $469,920,000 after purchasing an additional 1,723,683 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its position in Energy Transfer by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 19,776,221 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $387,416,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,381 shares in the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. grew its position in Energy Transfer by 18.2% in the 4th quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 16,331,220 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $319,929,000 after purchasing an additional 2,512,060 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Natixis grew its position in Energy Transfer by 7.1% in the 4th quarter. Natixis now owns 14,619,124 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $286,389,000 after purchasing an additional 962,800 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 38.22% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Energy Transfer from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Energy Transfer from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Citigroup reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Energy Transfer in a report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Energy Transfer from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $22.64.

Energy Transfer Price Performance

NYSE:ET traded up $0.19 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $17.72. The stock had a trading volume of 5,686,008 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,483,639. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $17.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $18.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 0.88. Energy Transfer LP has a one year low of $14.60 and a one year high of $21.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $60.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.84, a P/E/G ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.77.

Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $21.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $22.28 billion. Energy Transfer had a net margin of 5.74% and a return on equity of 11.56%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.32 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Energy Transfer LP will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Energy Transfer Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, May 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 9th were given a dividend of $0.3275 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 9th. This represents a $1.31 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.39%. This is a boost from Energy Transfer's previous quarterly dividend of $0.33. Energy Transfer's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 99.24%.

Energy Transfer 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.