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

Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE:PAA) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders bought 20,349 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 776% compared to the typical volume of 2,324 call options.

Plains All American Pipeline Stock Up 0.6 %

Plains All American Pipeline stock traded up $0.11 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $17.42. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 677,612 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,012,921. The company has a market capitalization of $12.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.45 and a beta of 1.59. Plains All American Pipeline has a 12 month low of $12.07 and a 12 month high of $17.51. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $16.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $15.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.98.

Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE:PAA) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The pipeline company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $12.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.30 billion. Plains All American Pipeline had a net margin of 2.39% and a return on equity of 10.48%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.33 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate 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 was paid on Wednesday, February 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 31st were paid a $0.3175 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, January 30th. This is a boost from Plains All American Pipeline’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.27 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.29%. Plains All American Pipeline’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 91.37%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on PAA shares. StockNews.com upgraded Plains All American Pipeline from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Citigroup increased their price target on Plains All American Pipeline from $16.50 to $17.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price target on Plains All American Pipeline from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $17.56.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Plains All American Pipeline

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PAA. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 109,124.8% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 46,409,609 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $545,777,000 after buying an additional 46,367,119 shares in the last quarter. Blackstone Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 131.6% during the 3rd quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 24,267,022 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $371,771,000 after acquiring an additional 13,787,485 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 67,031,503 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,026,923,000 after acquiring an additional 8,406,683 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 38.9% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 17,415,219 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $187,388,000 after acquiring an additional 4,880,244 shares during the period. Finally, UBS Group AG boosted its stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 89.3% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 8,556,465 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $129,630,000 after acquiring an additional 4,035,328 shares during the period. 41.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.