AQR Capital Management LLC Buys New Holdings in Enbridge Inc. (NYSE:ENB)

AQR Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Enbridge Inc. (NYSE:ENB) (TSE:ENB) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 8,508 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $303,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sei Investments Co. raised its holdings in Enbridge by 6.1% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 274,235 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $9,922,000 after acquiring an additional 15,650 shares in the last quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System purchased a new position in Enbridge in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,133,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Enbridge by 1.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 84,280,486 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,049,268,000 after purchasing an additional 1,227,031 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Enbridge in the first quarter valued at approximately $4,069,000. Finally, US Bancorp DE increased its stake in Enbridge by 21.2% in the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 461,607 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $16,701,000 after purchasing an additional 80,711 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.60% of the company’s stock.

Enbridge Stock Performance

NYSE:ENB opened at $41.82 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $40.25 and its 200 day moving average price is $37.45. Enbridge Inc. has a 1-year low of $31.31 and a 1-year high of $41.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.68. The firm has a market cap of $89.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.93.

Enbridge (NYSE:ENB) (TSE:ENB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The pipeline company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.13. Enbridge had a net margin of 13.31% and a return on equity of 10.07%. The firm had revenue of $8.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.28 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.51 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Enbridge Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current year.

Enbridge Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were issued a $0.669 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. Enbridge’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 134.01%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Enbridge from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Enbridge currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $51.50.

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.