Plains GP (NYSE:PAGP) Lowered to Hold Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Plains GP (NYSE:PAGP) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report published on Monday morning.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Plains GP from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $22.00 to $20.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Raymond James boosted their price target on Plains GP from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays boosted their price target on Plains GP from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Wolfe Research upgraded Plains GP from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded Plains GP from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the company from $22.00 to $19.00 in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.60.

Plains GP Price Performance

NYSE PAGP opened at $21.05 on Monday. Plains GP has a one year low of $16.22 and a one year high of $22.31. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $19.90 and a 200 day moving average of $19.08. The company has a market capitalization of $4.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.76 and a beta of 1.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.01.

Plains GP (NYSE:PAGP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 8th. The pipeline company reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.38 by ($0.21). Plains GP had a return on equity of 1.12% and a net margin of 0.33%. The business had revenue of $12.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.17 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.15 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Plains GP will post 0.83 EPS for the current year.

Plains GP Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be issued a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.22%. This is a boost from Plains GP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. Plains GP’s dividend payout ratio is currently 178.82%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Plains GP

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PAGP. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Plains GP by 24.7% in the 4th quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 8,218,030 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $151,047,000 after buying an additional 1,629,008 shares during the period. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Plains GP during the 3rd quarter worth $13,848,000. Yaupon Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Plains GP during the 3rd quarter worth $9,772,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Plains GP during the 4th quarter worth $5,214,000. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund purchased a new stake in shares of Plains GP during the 3rd quarter worth $4,013,000. 88.30% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Plains GP

Plains GP Holdings, L.P., through its subsidiary, Plains All American Pipeline, L.P., owns and operates midstream infrastructure systems in the United States and Canada. It operates in two segments, Crude Oil and Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs). The company engages in the gathering and transporting crude oil and NGLs using pipelines, gathering systems, and trucks.