Traders Purchase High Volume of Plains All American Pipeline Call Options (NYSE:PAA)

Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE:PAA - Get Free Report) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Investors bought 60,729 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 1,266% compared to the average daily volume of 4,446 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PAA has been the subject of several recent research reports. Scotiabank restated a "sector outperform" rating and set a $23.00 target price on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Plains All American Pipeline from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Raymond James boosted their price target on Plains All American Pipeline from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating and issued a $19.00 target price on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Plains All American Pipeline from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $22.00 to $20.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $20.21.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Plains All American Pipeline

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new position in shares of Plains All American Pipeline in the third quarter worth about $27,000. Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC bought a new position in Plains All American Pipeline in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Plains All American Pipeline during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. boosted its position in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 53.2% in the second quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 3,795 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $68,000 after acquiring an additional 1,318 shares during the period. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 16.3% in the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 6,094 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $109,000 after acquiring an additional 856 shares during the last quarter. 41.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Plains All American Pipeline Stock Up 0.5 %

Plains All American Pipeline stock traded up $0.10 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $19.90. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,228,644 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,937,106. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 0.92. Plains All American Pipeline has a 52-week low of $15.02 and a 52-week high of $21.00. The firm's 50 day moving average is $18.42 and its 200 day moving average is $17.85. The company has a market cap of $14.00 billion, a PE ratio of 17.77 and a beta of 1.65.

Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE:PAA - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The pipeline company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $12.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.09 billion. Plains All American Pipeline had a return on equity of 11.63% and a net margin of 2.08%. The business's revenue was up 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.35 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Plains All American Pipeline will post 1.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Plains All American Pipeline Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.64%. This is a boost from Plains All American Pipeline's previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. Plains All American Pipeline's payout ratio is currently 135.71%.

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.