Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE:PAA)

Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE:PAA) saw some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Traders acquired 9,116 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 251% compared to the average volume of 2,594 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Plains All American Pipeline

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Plains All American Pipeline by 58.9% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,221,571 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $125,439,000 after purchasing an additional 2,677,951 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. boosted its position in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 48.9% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 3,428,897 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $59,560,000 after buying an additional 1,125,386 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline in the third quarter valued at about $11,634,000. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT lifted its position in Plains All American Pipeline by 241.0% during the 3rd quarter. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT now owns 449,827 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $7,813,000 after acquiring an additional 317,927 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ING Groep NV lifted its position in Plains All American Pipeline by 29.1% during the 3rd quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 1,321,937 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $22,962,000 after acquiring an additional 297,937 shares in the last quarter. 41.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Plains All American Pipeline Stock Up 6.2 %

PAA opened at $18.73 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.72 and a beta of 1.64. Plains All American Pipeline has a 12 month low of $15.02 and a 12 month high of $19.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The business has a 50-day moving average of $17.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $17.67.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $12.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.09 billion. Plains All American Pipeline had a net margin of 2.08% and a return on equity of 11.63%. Plains All American Pipeline’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.35 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Plains All American Pipeline will post 1.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Plains All American Pipeline Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be issued a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.12%. This is a boost from Plains All American Pipeline’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. Plains All American Pipeline’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 113.39%.

About Plains All American Pipeline

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.