Investors Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD)

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock traders acquired 24,536 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 42% compared to the average volume of 17,297 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on EPD. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $39.00 price target (up from $36.00) on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $35.00 price objective on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Wolfe Research cut shares of Enterprise Products Partners from a “peer perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $31.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Enterprise Products Partners from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.00.

Enterprise Products Partners Stock Down 1.2%

EPD stock opened at $36.75 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $79.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.60. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $33.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $32.11. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. Enterprise Products Partners has a 52 week low of $27.77 and a 52 week high of $37.31.

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

Enterprise Products Partners announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, October 30th that permits the company to buyback $5.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the oil and gas producer to purchase up to 7.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Enterprise Products Partners Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 30th were paid a $0.55 dividend. This is a boost from Enterprise Products Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 30th. Enterprise Products Partners’s dividend payout ratio is presently 82.71%.

Insider Activity

In other Enterprise Products Partners news, Director John R. Rutherford purchased 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 29th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $32.09 per share, with a total value of $481,350.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 173,586 shares in the company, valued at $5,570,374.74. This trade represents a 9.46% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 32.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Enterprise Products Partners in the third quarter worth about $292,194,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in Enterprise Products Partners by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 18,163,343 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $582,317,000 after acquiring an additional 1,940,583 shares during the last quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC lifted its stake in Enterprise Products Partners by 14.3% in the 2nd quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 14,624,238 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $453,498,000 after purchasing an additional 1,834,659 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Enterprise Products Partners by 119.4% during the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,414,035 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $74,859,000 after purchasing an additional 1,313,976 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of Enterprise Products Partners by 57.5% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 2,928,068 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $93,874,000 after purchasing an additional 1,069,304 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 26.07% of the company’s stock.

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.