Ameriprise Financial Inc. Trims Stock Position in Pembina Pipeline Co. (NYSE:PBA)

Ameriprise Financial Inc. trimmed its holdings in Pembina Pipeline Co. (NYSE:PBA) (TSE:PPL) by 39.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 23,428 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 14,961 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc.’s holdings in Pembina Pipeline were worth $894,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Pembina Pipeline by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,887,077 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $919,503,000 after acquiring an additional 770,729 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Pembina Pipeline by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. now owns 6,789,722 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $250,732,000 after purchasing an additional 347,872 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Pembina Pipeline by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 6,249,624 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $230,610,000 after buying an additional 32,519 shares during the period. Scotia Capital Inc. grew its stake in shares of Pembina Pipeline by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 4,969,977 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $183,596,000 after buying an additional 85,121 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Pembina Pipeline during the 4th quarter valued at about $171,860,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.37% of the company’s stock.

Pembina Pipeline Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of NYSE:PBA opened at $37.95 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $37.88 and its 200 day moving average price is $37.95. The company has a market cap of $22.04 billion, a PE ratio of 15.68 and a beta of 0.81. Pembina Pipeline Co. has a fifty-two week low of $34.13 and a fifty-two week high of $43.44.

Pembina Pipeline (NYSE:PBA) (TSE:PPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The pipeline company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $1.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.47 billion. Pembina Pipeline had a return on equity of 13.62% and a net margin of 25.39%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 48.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.73 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Pembina Pipeline Co. will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Pembina Pipeline Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.5109 per share. This represents a $2.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.39%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 16th. This is a positive change from Pembina Pipeline’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. Pembina Pipeline’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 89.14%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Citigroup upgraded Pembina Pipeline from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Pembina Pipeline has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $56.00.

Pembina Pipeline Profile

Pembina Pipeline Corporation provides energy transportation and midstream services. It operates through three segments: Pipelines, Facilities, and Marketing & New Ventures. The Pipelines segment operates conventional, oil sands and heavy oil, and transmission assets with a transportation capacity of 2.9 millions of barrels of oil equivalent per day, the ground storage capacity of 10 millions of barrels, and rail terminalling capacity of approximately 105 thousands of barrels of oil equivalent per day serving markets and basins across North America.