Energy Transfer Equity (ETE, Financial) announced a quarterly dividend of 28.5 cents April 28 with an ex-dividend date of May 8 and a payment date of May 19. With the dividend announcement the stock has a forward dividend yield of 6.11%.
The stock is trading at $18.66 per share. Year to date it has a return of -3.26%. It has a one-year return of 50.28%, a three-year return of 59.52% and a five-year return of 272.85%.
Energy Transfer Equity is a master limited partnership that owns equity in Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP, Financial) and Sunoco LP (SUN, Financial). It pays distributions to shareholders from its main business segments which include Energy Transfer Partners, Sunoco LP, Lake Charles LNG and Energy Transfer Equity. Its business segments are primarily focused on the transfer of energy products throughout the U.S.
In the fourth quarter of 2016 it announced revenue of $10.8 billion, beating estimates by $1.14 billion and increasing 13.2% from the comparable quarter. Earnings per share in the fourth quarter were 21 cents, missing estimates by 8 cents and decreasing 30%.
For the year, revenue was $37.5 billion, a decrease from $42.1 billion. Earnings per share were 92 cents, also decreasing from $1.11 in 2015.
The company’s stock return has been decreasing primarily due to overleveraging across all of the firm’s business segments for new projects that are scheduled to begin ramping up in 2017. The company will report its first-quarter earnings on May 2 with more insight on its new projects.
As a master limited partnership the company will continue to pay steady distributions. Increased cash flow from new projects also has the potential to increase the company’s distributions in the next few quarters.
Institutional shareholders own approximately 46% of the company’s outstanding shares. Its top shareholder is Goldman Sachs with 4.30%.
Disclosure: I own Energy Transfer Equity.
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