Bleakley Financial Group LLC Makes New $253,000 Investment in UGI Co. (NYSE:UGI)

Bleakley Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in UGI Co. (NYSE:UGI) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 8,950 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $253,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in UGI. FMR LLC raised its position in UGI by 42.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,418,865 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $235,660,000 after acquiring an additional 2,786,878 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of UGI by 2,050.9% during the 4th quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 2,375,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $67,067,000 after purchasing an additional 2,265,300 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of UGI by 33.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,762,970 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $127,246,000 after purchasing an additional 1,202,938 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of UGI by 47.7% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,503,214 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $62,630,000 after purchasing an additional 808,113 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its position in shares of UGI by 105.8% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,507,263 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $37,712,000 after purchasing an additional 774,770 shares during the period. 82.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

UGI has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of UGI from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Mizuho upgraded shares of UGI from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $27.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of UGI in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $28.00 price objective on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, UGI currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $28.33.

UGI Stock Performance

UGI opened at $32.12 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.65, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a fifty day moving average of $29.15 and a 200 day moving average of $26.28. UGI Co. has a fifty-two week low of $22.01 and a fifty-two week high of $32.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.80.

UGI (NYSE:UGI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.21 by $0.16. UGI had a net margin of 7.73% and a return on equity of 15.21%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that UGI Co. will post 3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

UGI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be paid a $0.375 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. This represents a $1.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.67%. UGI’s payout ratio is currently 59.06%.

UGI Profile

UGI Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, distributes, stores, transports, and markets energy products and related services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through four segments: AmeriGas Propane, UGI International, Midstream & Marketing, and UGI Utilities. It distributes propane to approximately 1.3 million residential, commercial/industrial, motor fuel, agricultural, and wholesale customers through 1,400 propane distribution locations.