Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Acquires 327,807 Shares of Enterprise Products Partners L.P. $EPD

Key Points

• Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its stake in Enterprise Products Partners by 7.8% in the fourth quarter, adding 327,807 shares to bring its total holdings to 4.51 million shares worth about $144.6 million.
• Several analysts remain constructive on EPD, with UBS and Citigroup reiterating buy ratings and Citigroup raising its price target to $44. The overall consensus rating is still Hold, with an average target price of $39.60.
• Enterprise Products Partners recently reported quarterly EPS of $0.68, missing estimates, but revenue came in above expectations at $14.39 billion. The company also paid a $0.55 quarterly dividend, implying a 5.6% annual yield.

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in shares of Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD - Free Report) by 7.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,510,036 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock after acquiring an additional 327,807 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans owned about 0.21% of Enterprise Products Partners worth $144,592,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Enterprise Products Partners by 1.5% during the third quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 21,145 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $661,000 after acquiring an additional 317 shares during the period. ORG Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in Enterprise Products Partners by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 66,266 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $2,125,000 after acquiring an additional 317 shares during the period. Walker Asset Management LLC increased its position in Enterprise Products Partners by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Walker Asset Management LLC now owns 19,678 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $631,000 after acquiring an additional 326 shares during the period. Montag A & Associates Inc. increased its position in Enterprise Products Partners by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 5,880 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $189,000 after acquiring an additional 330 shares during the period. Finally, Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. increased its position in Enterprise Products Partners by 2.9% during the third quarter. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. now owns 11,978 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $375,000 after acquiring an additional 334 shares during the period. 26.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on EPD. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Citigroup reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $44.00 price target (up from $39.00) on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Enterprise Products Partners from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, April 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Enterprise Products Partners from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Scotiabank reissued a "sector perform" rating and issued a $40.00 target price (up from $39.00) on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a report on Tuesday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $39.60.

Enterprise Products Partners Price Performance

EPD stock opened at $39.15 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03. Enterprise Products Partners L.P. has a 12 month low of $30.01 and a 12 month high of $39.74. The firm has a market cap of $84.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.52. The company's 50-day moving average price is $37.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $34.68.

Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.71 by ($0.03). Enterprise Products Partners had a net margin of 11.45% and a return on equity of 19.53%. The firm had revenue of $14.39 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.64 earnings per share. Enterprise Products Partners's quarterly revenue was down 6.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Enterprise Products Partners L.P. will post 2.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Enterprise Products Partners Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 30th were issued a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 30th. Enterprise Products Partners's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 81.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Aj Teague bought 2,665 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 20th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $37.55 per share, with a total value of $100,070.75. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer directly owned 77,576 shares in the company, valued at $2,912,978.80. This represents a 3.56% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 32.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.

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.