Traders Purchase High Volume of Enbridge Put Options (NYSE:ENB)

Enbridge Inc. (NYSE:ENB - Get Free Report) TSE: ENB was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Stock investors purchased 20,216 put options on the company. This is an increase of 1,036% compared to the typical volume of 1,779 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ENB. Raymond James raised Enbridge to a "moderate buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. National Bankshares reiterated a "sector perform" rating on shares of Enbridge in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $67.00 price objective on shares of Enbridge in a research report on Monday, May 12th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Enbridge in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Citigroup began coverage on Enbridge in a research report on Friday, April 4th. They set a "buy" rating for the company. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Enbridge presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $67.00.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Enbridge

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ENB. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Enbridge by 1.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 93,187,025 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $4,124,271,000 after buying an additional 1,569,879 shares during the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Enbridge by 1.5% during the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 75,439,320 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $3,338,405,000 after buying an additional 1,148,580 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Enbridge by 1.3% during the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 39,265,817 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $1,737,602,000 after buying an additional 513,058 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Enbridge by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. now owns 38,752,759 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $1,643,935,000 after buying an additional 1,040,799 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG lifted its holdings in shares of Enbridge by 13.9% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 36,336,212 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $1,541,745,000 after buying an additional 4,426,684 shares during the last quarter. 54.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Enbridge Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of ENB traded down $0.18 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $46.63. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,064,061 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,013,264. The business has a fifty day moving average of $45.45 and a 200 day moving average of $43.98. The company has a market cap of $101.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.92 and a beta of 0.81. Enbridge has a 1 year low of $34.60 and a 1 year high of $47.44. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50.

Enbridge (NYSE:ENB - Get Free Report) TSE: ENB last released its earnings results on Friday, May 9th. The pipeline company reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.68 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $7.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.20 billion. Enbridge had a return on equity of 10.16% and a net margin of 10.04%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.92 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Enbridge will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Enbridge Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th were issued a dividend of $0.679 per share. This is a positive change from Enbridge's previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 15th. Enbridge's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 139.69%.

Enbridge Company Profile

Enbridge Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy infrastructure company. The company operates through five segments: Liquids Pipelines, Gas Transmission and Midstream, Gas Distribution and Storage, Renewable Power Generation, and Energy Services. The Liquids Pipelines segment operates pipelines and related terminals to transport various grades of crude oil and other liquid hydrocarbons in Canada and the United States.