Venturi Wealth Management LLC Buys 491 Shares of UGI Co. (NYSE:UGI)

Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in UGI Co. (NYSE:UGI) by 15.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,749 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 491 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in UGI were worth $106,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of UGI by 42.0% in the 3rd 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 last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of UGI by 33.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,762,970 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $127,246,000 after acquiring an additional 1,202,938 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of UGI by 47.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,503,214 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $62,630,000 after acquiring an additional 808,113 shares in the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of UGI by 2,050.9% in the 4th quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 2,375,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $67,067,000 after purchasing an additional 2,265,300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its stake in UGI by 105.8% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,507,263 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $37,712,000 after purchasing an additional 774,770 shares in the last quarter. 82.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on UGI. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of UGI in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $28.00 price objective for the company. Mizuho raised shares of UGI from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $27.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Friday, November 15th.

UGI Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:UGI opened at $33.12 on Monday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $26.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.00. The firm has a market cap of $7.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.21. UGI Co. has a fifty-two week low of $22.01 and a fifty-two week high of $33.58.

UGI (NYSE:UGI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.21 by $0.16. UGI had a net margin of 7.73% and a return on equity of 15.19%. On average, analysts expect that UGI Co. will post 3.02 earnings per share for the current year.

UGI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Monday, March 17th will be issued a $0.375 dividend. This represents a $1.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. UGI’s payout ratio is currently 59.06%.

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.