Plains All American Pipeline Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:PAA)

Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE:PAA) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors purchased 4,020 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 55% compared to the typical volume of 2,595 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Plains All American Pipeline

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of PAA. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in Plains All American Pipeline in the third quarter valued at $27,000. Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC acquired a new position in shares of Plains All American Pipeline during the 3rd quarter worth about $28,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. boosted its position in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 53.2% during the 2nd quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 3,795 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $68,000 after acquiring an additional 1,318 shares in the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 31.2% in the 2nd quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 4,460 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $80,000 after acquiring an additional 1,060 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline during the 2nd quarter worth about $98,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.78% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut Plains All American Pipeline from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $22.00 to $20.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Morgan Stanley lowered Plains All American Pipeline from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $22.00 to $19.00 in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $19.00 price objective on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $18.00 target price on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $19.82.

Plains All American Pipeline Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of PAA opened at $17.13 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $17.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $17.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.01. Plains All American Pipeline has a 1 year low of $15.02 and a 1 year high of $19.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.05 billion, a PE ratio of 15.29 and a beta of 1.64.

Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE:PAA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The pipeline company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.06. Plains All American Pipeline had a net margin of 2.08% and a return on equity of 11.63%. The company had revenue of $12.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.09 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.35 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Plains All American Pipeline will post 1.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Plains All American Pipeline Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 31st were paid a dividend of $0.3175 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $1.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.41%. Plains All American Pipeline’s payout ratio is 113.39%.

Plains All American Pipeline Company Profile

Plains All American Pipeline, L.P., through its subsidiaries, engages in the pipeline transportation, terminaling, storage, and gathering of crude oil and natural gas liquids (NGL) in the United States and Canada. The company operates through two segments, Crude Oil and NGL. The Crude Oil segment offers gathering and transporting crude oil through pipelines, gathering systems, trucks, and on barges or railcars.