Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Enbridge Put Options (NYSE:ENB)

Enbridge Inc. (NYSE:ENB) (TSE:ENB) saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders acquired 20,216 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 1,036% compared to the average volume of 1,779 put options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ENB has been the subject of a number of research reports. TD Securities began coverage on shares of Enbridge in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of Enbridge in a research report on Friday, October 25th. They issued an “equal weight” rating for the company. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Enbridge from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Enbridge from $63.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Enbridge presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $67.00.

Enbridge Price Performance

Shares of Enbridge stock opened at $42.31 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.62. Enbridge has a 52-week low of $32.85 and a 52-week high of $45.78. The company has a fifty day moving average of $43.35 and a 200-day moving average of $41.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $92.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.94.

Enbridge (NYSE:ENB) (TSE:ENB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The pipeline company reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $11.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.78 billion. Enbridge had a net margin of 10.04% and a return on equity of 10.15%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.64 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Enbridge will post 2.15 EPS for the current year.

Enbridge Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Saturday, February 15th will be paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.33%. Enbridge’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 155.81%.

Institutional Trading of Enbridge

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Creative Planning boosted its position in Enbridge by 5.9% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 241,572 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $9,810,000 after buying an additional 13,455 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Enbridge during the third quarter worth about $204,000. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Enbridge by 39.9% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 13,736 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $558,000 after purchasing an additional 3,917 shares during the period. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in Enbridge during the 3rd quarter valued at about $302,000. Finally, Bayshore Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Enbridge during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $217,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 54.60% of the company’s stock.

About Enbridge

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.