Energy Transfer Becomes A Hot Topic As Weekly Retail Chatter Triples: What's Fueling The Buzz?

Energy Transfer (ET) stock drew retail attention over the past week after a jury found Greenpeace liable to pay the pipeline operator $667 million in damages.

A jury in North Dakota found Greenpeace and its U.S. entities liable for defamation, conspiracy, and other claims for its involvement in protests at the Dakota Access pipeline, according to a Bloomberg report.

The Dallas-based pipeline firm had accused Greenpeace of handing over money to protesters to unlawfully hinder the pipeline's construction and spreading falsehoods about the project.

Construction of the project began in 2016 and was completed the following year. The 1,172-mile underground pipeline transports oil from North Dakota to Illinois.

Greenpeace attorney Deepa Padmanabha told Reuters that the group played a minor role in the demonstrations against the pipeline.

On Friday, Retail sentiment on Stocktwits remained in the ‘extremely bearish’ (24/100) territory compared to ‘bearish’(42/100) a day ago, while retail chatter was ‘low.’

However, the message volume surged by 200% during the week compared to the previous one.

Several retail traders shared the news about the Greenpeace settlement on Stocktwits. 

Others were bearish on the stock with skepticism around natural gas demand.

The company had missed Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter revenue in February.

Lower transportation revenue, primarily from the Bakken pipeline, and reduced marketing earnings hurt the company's bottom line.

Earlier in February, the company signed a natural gas supply agreement with Denver-based CloudBurst Data Centers for an AI-focused data center outside San Marcos, Texas.

During the quarterly earnings call, the company said it had received requests from over 70 prospective data centers in 12 states.

Energy Transfer shares have fallen about 5.1% year-to-date (YTD).

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