Saxon Interests Inc. Buys New Shares in Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET)

Saxon Interests Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 28,122 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $388,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Energy Transfer by 109,332.4% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 145,943,387 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,732,348,000 after buying an additional 145,810,023 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in Energy Transfer by 20.9% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 76,339,168 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $906,146,000 after acquiring an additional 13,220,435 shares in the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Energy Transfer by 14.5% during the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 73,666,501 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,033,541,000 after buying an additional 9,341,798 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG raised its stake in Energy Transfer by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 25,274,342 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $354,599,000 after buying an additional 953,251 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its stake in Energy Transfer by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 22,600,697 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $252,902,000 after buying an additional 184,203 shares during the last quarter. 38.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Energy Transfer Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE:ET traded up $0.17 during trading on Thursday, reaching $15.71. 12,317,777 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,608,387. The firm has a market capitalization of $52.92 billion, a PE ratio of 14.41 and a beta of 1.64. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $14.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $14.03. Energy Transfer LP has a 12-month low of $12.06 and a 12-month high of $15.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The pipeline company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $20.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.46 billion. Energy Transfer had a net margin of 4.85% and a return on equity of 12.17%. Energy Transfer’s revenue was up .2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.34 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Energy Transfer LP will post 1.44 EPS for the current year.

Energy Transfer Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 7th were paid a $0.315 dividend. This represents a $1.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.02%. This is an increase from Energy Transfer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 6th. Energy Transfer’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 115.60%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Energy Transfer from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Energy Transfer from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Energy Transfer presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $17.57.

About Energy Transfer

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.