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

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD) saw some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Traders acquired 26,765 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 78% compared to the typical volume of 15,068 call options.

Institutional Trading of Enterprise Products Partners

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Enterprise Products Partners by 11.1% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 1,068,284 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $33,501,000 after purchasing an additional 106,895 shares in the last quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC increased its position in Enterprise Products Partners by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 476,485 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $14,943,000 after buying an additional 1,374 shares in the last quarter. Copia Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Enterprise Products Partners in the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Menard Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Enterprise Products Partners during the 4th quarter valued at about $42,000. Finally, Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC bought a new position in shares of Enterprise Products Partners during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $291,000. 26.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

EPD has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Enterprise Products Partners from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Enterprise Products Partners from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Enterprise Products Partners from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Enterprise Products Partners from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Enterprise Products Partners from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $35.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $36.60.

Enterprise Products Partners Price Performance

Shares of EPD opened at $33.96 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $33.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $31.67. The firm has a market cap of $73.54 billion, a PE ratio of 12.62, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. Enterprise Products Partners has a 1-year low of $27.37 and a 1-year high of $34.63.

Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $14.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.07 billion. Enterprise Products Partners had a return on equity of 20.48% and a net margin of 10.49%. Enterprise Products Partners’s revenue was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.72 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Enterprise Products Partners will post 2.9 EPS for the current year.

Enterprise Products Partners Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st were given a dividend of $0.535 per share. This represents a $2.14 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.30%. This is a positive change from Enterprise Products Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 31st. Enterprise Products Partners’s payout ratio is 79.55%.

About Enterprise Products Partners

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. provides midstream energy services to producers and consumers of natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), crude oil, petrochemicals, and refined products. It operates in four segments: NGL Pipelines & Services, Crude Oil Pipelines & Services, Natural Gas Pipelines & Services, and Petrochemical & Refined Products Services.