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

Plains All American Pipeline Lp (NASDAQ:PAA) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Investors bought 78,076 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 726% compared to the typical volume of 9,454 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on PAA shares. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Plains All American Pipeline from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Plains All American Pipeline from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, US Capital Advisors cut shares of Plains All American Pipeline from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $23.23.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Plains All American Pipeline

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PAA. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Plains All American Pipeline by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 33,508,798 shares of the company’s stock worth $601,818,000 after buying an additional 228,106 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Plains All American Pipeline by 17.8% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 20,049,972 shares of the company’s stock worth $360,097,000 after acquiring an additional 3,033,216 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in Plains All American Pipeline by 40.2% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,881,248 shares of the company’s stock valued at $177,467,000 after acquiring an additional 2,833,161 shares during the period. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. grew its stake in Plains All American Pipeline by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 9,542,156 shares of the company’s stock valued at $171,377,000 after acquiring an additional 265,555 shares during the period. Finally, BROOKFIELD Corp ON grew its stake in Plains All American Pipeline by 18.9% in the second quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 6,774,650 shares of the company’s stock valued at $124,112,000 after acquiring an additional 1,076,291 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.78% of the company’s stock.

Plains All American Pipeline Stock Performance

Shares of PAA stock opened at $24.57 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The stock has a market cap of $17.33 billion, a PE ratio of 18.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.85 and a beta of 0.50. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $22.97 and a 200-day moving average of $21.79. Plains All American Pipeline has a one year low of $15.69 and a one year high of $25.03.

Plains All American Pipeline (NASDAQ:PAA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 8th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.41 by ($0.02). Plains All American Pipeline had a return on equity of 12.17% and a net margin of 2.53%.The firm had revenue of $12.47 billion for the quarter. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.39 earnings per share. Plains All American Pipeline’s revenue was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Plains All American Pipeline will post 1.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Plains All American Pipeline Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 31st will be issued a $0.4175 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 31st. This represents a $1.67 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.8%. Plains All American Pipeline’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 127.48%.

About Plains All American Pipeline

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.