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

Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE:PAA) saw unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 4,020 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 55% compared to the average volume of 2,595 call options.

Plains All American Pipeline Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:PAA opened at $17.13 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $12.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.29 and a beta of 1.64. Plains All American Pipeline has a one year low of $15.02 and a one year high of $19.17. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $17.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $17.63. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The pipeline company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.06. Plains All American Pipeline had a return on equity of 11.63% and a net margin of 2.08%. The firm had revenue of $12.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.09 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.35 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Plains All American Pipeline will post 1.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Plains All American Pipeline Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 31st were paid 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 (DPR) is currently 113.39%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PAA has been the topic of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $19.00 price target on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a report on Friday, November 15th. Bank of America initiated 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. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Plains All American Pipeline from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $22.00 to $20.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Plains All American Pipeline from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $22.00 to $19.00 in a research note on Friday, October 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $19.82.

Institutional Trading of Plains All American Pipeline

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 57,289 shares during the last quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Plains All American Pipeline by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 4,140,089 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $71,913,000 after acquiring an additional 42,383 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. grew its position in Plains All American Pipeline by 48.9% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 3,428,897 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $59,560,000 after acquiring an additional 1,125,386 shares during the last quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY increased its stake in Plains All American Pipeline by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 2,548,723 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $45,520,000 after purchasing an additional 48,799 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its stake in Plains All American Pipeline by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 2,008,321 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $34,885,000 after purchasing an additional 32,061 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.78% of the company’s stock.

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.