Beirne Wealth Consulting Services LLC Makes New Investment in UGI Co. (NYSE:UGI)

Beirne Wealth Consulting Services LLC acquired a new position in UGI Co. (NYSE:UGI) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 7,524 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $215,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 2,786,878 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. lifted its position in UGI by 2,050.9% in the fourth 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 last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of UGI by 33.8% during the third 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. increased its stake in shares of UGI by 47.7% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,503,214 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $62,630,000 after buying an additional 808,113 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its position in 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 buying an additional 774,770 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.34% of the company’s stock.

UGI Trading Up 2.3 %

UGI stock opened at $33.03 on Wednesday. UGI Co. has a one year low of $22.01 and a one year high of $33.11. The business’s fifty day moving average is $29.53 and its 200 day moving average is $26.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.44, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.09 billion, a PE ratio of 13.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.21.

UGI (NYSE:UGI) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 15.19%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that UGI Co. will post 3.02 EPS for the current year.

UGI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders 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 4.54%. UGI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 59.06%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on UGI shares. Mizuho upgraded UGI from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $27.00 to $30.00 in a report on Friday, November 15th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on UGI in a report on Friday, November 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $28.00 target price for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, UGI currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $28.33.

About UGI

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.