Plains All American Pipeline Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:PAA)

Plains All American Pipeline Lp (NASDAQ:PAA) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders purchased 78,076 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 726% compared to the average daily volume of 9,454 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Plains All American Pipeline

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its stake in Plains All American Pipeline by 1.6% during the first quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 28,439 shares of the company’s stock worth $635,000 after purchasing an additional 453 shares during the period. Summit Financial LLC lifted its stake in Plains All American Pipeline by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Summit Financial LLC now owns 61,265 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,100,000 after buying an additional 599 shares during the period. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 40.7% during the 4th quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,263 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 655 shares in the last quarter. Symphony Financial Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Symphony Financial Services Inc. now owns 52,496 shares of the company’s stock worth $943,000 after buying an additional 715 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sippican Capital Advisors grew its position in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Sippican Capital Advisors now owns 32,800 shares of the company’s stock worth $589,000 after buying an additional 775 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 41.78% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on PAA shares. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $23.00 price objective on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Zacks Research downgraded Plains All American Pipeline from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. US Capital Advisors cut Plains All American Pipeline from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. One 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 assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $23.23.

Plains All American Pipeline Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:PAA traded down $0.07 during trading on Thursday, reaching $24.82. The stock had a trading volume of 2,503,023 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,130,365. Plains All American Pipeline has a 52 week low of $15.69 and a 52 week high of $25.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.94. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $22.94 and its 200 day moving average is $21.72. The stock has a market cap of $17.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.95, a P/E/G ratio of 9.69 and a beta of 0.50.

Plains All American Pipeline (NASDAQ:PAA) last announced its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $12.47 billion for the quarter. Plains All American Pipeline had a return on equity of 12.17% and a net margin of 2.53%.The firm’s revenue was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.39 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Plains All American Pipeline will post 1.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Plains All American Pipeline Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 31st will be paid a $0.4175 dividend. This represents a $1.67 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 31st. Plains All American Pipeline’s payout ratio is currently 127.48%.

Plains All American Pipeline Company Profile

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.