Investors Buy Large Volume of Plains All American Pipeline Call Options (NASDAQ:PAA)

Plains All American Pipeline Lp (NASDAQ:PAA) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors acquired 20,343 call options on the company. This is an increase of 110% compared to the typical volume of 9,704 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PAA has been the subject of several recent research reports. Scotiabank reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a report on Monday, February 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Plains All American Pipeline from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Mizuho set a $23.00 price objective on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Plains All American Pipeline from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Plains All American Pipeline from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $21.85.

Plains All American Pipeline Trading Up 2.3%

NASDAQ:PAA traded up $0.51 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $22.29. 1,509,582 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,830,447. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.58. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $20.35. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97. Plains All American Pipeline has a fifty-two week low of $15.57 and a fifty-two week high of $22.42.

Plains All American Pipeline (NASDAQ:PAA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 6th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.33). Plains All American Pipeline had a net margin of 3.21% and a return on equity of 10.76%. The company’s revenue was down 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.42 EPS.

Plains All American Pipeline Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 30th were issued a dividend of $0.4175 per share. This represents a $1.67 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.5%. This is a positive change from Plains All American Pipeline’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 30th. Plains All American Pipeline’s dividend payout ratio is currently 100.60%.

Institutional Trading of Plains All American Pipeline

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PAA. Mather Group LLC. acquired a new stake in Plains All American Pipeline in the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. Caldwell Trust Co acquired a new position in Plains All American Pipeline during the third quarter worth $38,000. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in Plains All American Pipeline by 40.7% during the fourth quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,263 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 655 shares in the last quarter. Aventura Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Plains All American Pipeline during the fourth quarter valued at $42,000. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 468.7% during the third quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 2,582 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 2,128 shares during the period. 41.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Plains All American Pipeline Company Profile

Plains All American Pipeline (NASDAQ: PAA) is a publicly traded energy infrastructure company that provides midstream services for crude oil and natural gas liquids (NGLs). The company’s core activities include gathering, transporting, storing and marketing hydrocarbons, using an integrated network of pipelines, storage terminals, rail and truck transloading facilities. Plains also offers logistics and marketing services that connect upstream producers with refiners, traders and export markets.

Plains owns and operates a portfolio of pipeline and terminal assets concentrated in major U.S.