Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD) Stock Price Up 4.9% – Time to Buy?

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD)’s share price traded up 4.9% on Friday . The company traded as high as $37.31 and last traded at $37.1570. 9,285,319 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 77% from the average session volume of 5,245,027 shares. The stock had previously closed at $35.42.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on EPD shares. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $38.00 target price (up from $35.00) on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $32.00 price objective on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a report on Friday, December 19th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Enterprise Products Partners from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Enterprise Products Partners currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.00.

Enterprise Products Partners Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The firm has a market cap of $80.38 billion, a PE ratio of 13.97, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.60. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $32.84 and its 200 day moving average price is $31.97.

Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $13.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.44 billion. Enterprise Products Partners had a return on equity of 19.43% and a net margin of 11.05%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.74 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Enterprise Products Partners L.P. will post 2.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Enterprise Products Partners Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 13th. Investors of record on Friday, January 30th will be given a dividend of $0.55 per share. This is a boost from Enterprise Products Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 30th. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.9%. Enterprise Products Partners’s dividend payout ratio is presently 82.71%.

Enterprise Products Partners declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, October 30th that permits the company to buyback $5.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the oil and gas producer to repurchase up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director John R. Rutherford purchased 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 29th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $32.09 per share, with a total value of $481,350.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 173,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,570,374.74. This represents a 9.46% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 32.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Enterprise Products Partners

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Alps Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Enterprise Products Partners by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 42,639,131 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,367,011,000 after purchasing an additional 260,305 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Enterprise Products Partners by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 26,787,203 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $830,671,000 after buying an additional 69,505 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its position in shares of Enterprise Products Partners by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 19,116,333 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $612,870,000 after buying an additional 883,983 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of Enterprise Products Partners by 1.4% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 18,652,232 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $578,406,000 after buying an additional 252,513 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Enterprise Products Partners by 12.0% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 18,163,343 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $582,317,000 after buying an additional 1,940,583 shares during the last quarter. 26.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Enterprise Products Partners

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.