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

Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE:PAA) was the target of some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Investors acquired 4,020 call options on the company. This is an increase of 55% compared to the average volume of 2,595 call options.

Plains All American Pipeline Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of PAA stock opened at $17.13 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $17.42 and a 200-day simple moving average of $17.63. Plains All American Pipeline has a 1-year low of $15.02 and a 1-year high of $19.17. The company has a market cap 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 current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 0.92.

Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE:PAA) last released its earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The pipeline company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $12.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.35 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Plains All American Pipeline will post 1.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Plains All American Pipeline Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 31st were given a $0.3175 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $1.27 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.41%. Plains All American Pipeline’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 113.39%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PAA has been the subject of several research reports. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Plains All American Pipeline from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $22.00 to $19.00 in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Bank of America started coverage on Plains All American Pipeline in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $18.00 price target on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $19.00 price objective on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered Plains All American Pipeline from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $22.00 to $20.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $19.82.

Institutional Trading of Plains All American Pipeline

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Stifel Financial Corp raised its holdings in Plains All American Pipeline by 30.6% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 230,729 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $4,008,000 after acquiring an additional 54,111 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Plains All American Pipeline by 91.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 600,282 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $10,427,000 after buying an additional 286,222 shares in the last quarter. Syntax Research Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline in the 3rd quarter worth $1,742,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 1,006.4% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 67,038 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,164,000 after acquiring an additional 60,979 shares during the period. Finally, Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. boosted its position in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 18,854,069 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $336,734,000 after acquiring an additional 57,289 shares during the last quarter. 41.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.