Stock Traders Buy Large 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 activity on Thursday. Investors purchased 13,245 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 107% compared to the average daily volume of 6,392 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on PAA. Wolfe Research raised shares of Plains All American Pipeline from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Plains All American Pipeline from $19.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Raymond James lifted their price objective on Plains All American Pipeline from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Scotiabank lowered their target price on Plains All American Pipeline from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on Plains All American Pipeline from $19.00 to $18.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Plains All American Pipeline presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.36.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Plains All American Pipeline

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PAA. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Plains All American Pipeline by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 27,827,930 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $475,301,000 after buying an additional 1,224,381 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 8.6% in the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 15,297,594 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $261,283,000 after acquiring an additional 1,211,286 shares during the last quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. grew its holdings in Plains All American Pipeline by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 13,321,966 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $227,539,000 after purchasing an additional 75,509 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Plains All American Pipeline by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,851,712 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $134,107,000 after purchasing an additional 630,141 shares during the period. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 30.8% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 4,936,982 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $92,470,000 after purchasing an additional 1,162,933 shares during the last quarter. 41.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Plains All American Pipeline Stock Performance

NYSE:PAA opened at $18.20 on Friday. Plains All American Pipeline has a 1-year low of $15.58 and a 1-year high of $21.00. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $18.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $18.44. The firm has a market cap of $12.81 billion, a PE ratio of 24.93 and a beta of 1.17. 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 Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.35%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. Plains All American Pipeline’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 208.22%.

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.