Stock Traders Buy 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 unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders acquired 4,020 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 55% compared to the typical volume of 2,595 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Plains All American Pipeline

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Axiom Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 5.2% during the third quarter. Axiom Advisory LLC now owns 15,300 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $274,000 after buying an additional 750 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its stake in Plains All American Pipeline by 16.3% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 6,094 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $109,000 after purchasing an additional 856 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 5.1% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 18,146 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $315,000 after purchasing an additional 887 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 0.9% in the second quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 106,845 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $1,908,000 after purchasing an additional 927 shares during the last quarter. Finally, U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 0.4% during the third quarter. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 263,645 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $4,580,000 after purchasing an additional 1,047 shares during the period. 41.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on PAA. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Plains All American Pipeline from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and reduced their price target for the company from $22.00 to $19.00 in a report on Friday, October 25th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Plains All American Pipeline from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $22.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating and set a $19.00 price target on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on Plains All American Pipeline in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $18.00 price objective on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Plains All American Pipeline has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $19.82.

Plains All American Pipeline Stock Up 1.3 %

PAA stock traded up $0.22 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $17.13. 1,809,367 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,850,797. The company has a market capitalization of $12.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.29 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.01. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $17.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $17.63. Plains All American Pipeline has a 12 month low of $15.02 and a 12 month high of $19.17.

Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE:PAA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 8th. The pipeline company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $12.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.09 billion. Plains All American Pipeline had a net margin of 2.08% and a return on equity of 11.63%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.35 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Plains All American Pipeline will post 1.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Plains All American Pipeline Announces Dividend

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