Avantax Advisory Services Inc. Purchases 5,949 Shares of Plains GP Holdings, L.P. (NYSE:PAGP)

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Plains GP Holdings, L.P. (NYSE:PAGP) by 17.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 40,124 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,949 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Plains GP were worth $737,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Plains GP by 8,120.7% during the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,384 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 2,355 shares in the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in Plains GP in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $562,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Plains GP in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,214,000. Assetmark Inc. increased its holdings in Plains GP by 21,473.2% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 42,715 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $785,000 after purchasing an additional 42,517 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Plato Investment Management Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Plains GP by 144.2% during the fourth quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 35,812 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $661,000 after buying an additional 21,146 shares in the last quarter. 88.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on PAGP shares. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Plains GP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Plains GP from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Wolfe Research upgraded Plains GP from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Plains GP from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $22.00 to $20.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Raymond James increased their price target on shares of Plains GP from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Plains GP presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.60.

Plains GP Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of PAGP opened at $21.34 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $21.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $19.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.01. The firm has a market cap of $4.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.26 and a beta of 1.55. Plains GP Holdings, L.P. has a 52 week low of $17.17 and a 52 week high of $22.31.

Plains GP Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 31st. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.12%. This is a positive change from Plains GP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. Plains GP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 286.79%.

Plains GP Profile

Plains GP Holdings, L.P., through its subsidiary, Plains All American Pipeline, L.P., owns and operates midstream infrastructure systems in the United States and Canada. It operates in two segments, Crude Oil and Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs). The company engages in the gathering and transporting crude oil and NGLs using pipelines, gathering systems, and trucks.