Ultrapar Participacoes S.A. (NYSE:UGP) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Ultrapar Participacoes S.A. (NYSE:UGP) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven analysts that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, one has issued a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $6.00.

UGP has been the subject of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group cut Ultrapar Participacoes from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $5.40 price target for the company. in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Weiss Ratings cut Ultrapar Participacoes from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Ultrapar Participacoes from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Ultrapar Participacoes from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $3.10 to $5.60 in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Finally, UBS Group initiated coverage on Ultrapar Participacoes in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $7.00 price target for the company.

Ultrapar Participacoes Stock Down 2.6%

Shares of UGP stock opened at $5.54 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $5.69 and a 200 day moving average of $4.85. The company has a current ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The stock has a market cap of $6.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.77. Ultrapar Participacoes has a twelve month low of $2.80 and a twelve month high of $6.20.

Ultrapar Participacoes (NYSE:UGP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Saturday, February 14th. The oil and gas company reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $6.19 billion during the quarter. Ultrapar Participacoes had a return on equity of 16.54% and a net margin of 2.04%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ultrapar Participacoes will post 0.58 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Ultrapar Participacoes

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Ultrapar Participacoes by 98.2% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,214,612 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $15,889,000 after buying an additional 2,087,852 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Ultrapar Participacoes by 117.4% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,084,186 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $16,745,000 after buying an additional 2,205,282 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its position in shares of Ultrapar Participacoes by 10.6% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 3,740,700 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $20,611,000 after buying an additional 357,922 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ultrapar Participacoes in the third quarter valued at approximately $14,639,000. Finally, UBS Group AG increased its position in shares of Ultrapar Participacoes by 131.9% in the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 2,890,033 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $11,849,000 after buying an additional 1,643,562 shares in the last quarter. 3.58% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ultrapar Participacoes Company Profile

Ultrapar Participações SA is a Brazilian diversified holding company operating in the downstream energy and chemical sectors. Its Ipiranga unit runs one of Brazil’s largest networks of fuel stations, supplying gasoline, ethanol, diesel and convenience-store products to retail and wholesale customers. Through Ultragaz, the company is a leading distributor of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), offering cylinder and bulk gas solutions for residential, commercial and industrial use across urban and rural regions.

In the specialty chemicals arena, Ultrapar controls Oxiteno, which produces surfactants and specialty chemical formulations for industries such as personal care, oil and gas, agrochemicals and coatings.