Plains All American Pipeline Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:PAA)

Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE:PAA) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Investors acquired 20,349 call options on the company. This is an increase of 776% compared to the typical daily volume of 2,324 call options.

Plains All American Pipeline Stock Performance

Shares of PAA stock traded up $0.11 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $17.42. The stock had a trading volume of 677,612 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,012,921. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.87. Plains All American Pipeline has a twelve month low of $12.07 and a twelve month high of $17.51. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $16.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $15.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.21 billion, a PE ratio of 12.45 and a beta of 1.59.

Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE:PAA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 9th. The pipeline company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.06. Plains All American Pipeline had a net margin of 2.39% and a return on equity of 10.48%. The business had revenue of $12.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.33 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Plains All American Pipeline will post 1.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Plains All American Pipeline Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 31st were issued a dividend of $0.3175 per share. This represents a $1.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.29%. This is a positive change from Plains All American Pipeline’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, January 30th. Plains All American Pipeline’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 91.37%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of PAA. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 201,893 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,059,000 after purchasing an additional 2,687 shares during the period. MONECO Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Plains All American Pipeline in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,008,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Plains All American Pipeline in the fourth quarter worth approximately $165,000. Tucker Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Plains All American Pipeline in the fourth quarter worth approximately $81,000. Finally, Scarborough Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Plains All American Pipeline in the fourth quarter worth approximately $46,000. 41.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PAA has been the topic of several recent research reports. Citigroup boosted their price target on Plains All American Pipeline from $16.50 to $17.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com upgraded Plains All American Pipeline from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price target on Plains All American Pipeline from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Plains All American Pipeline has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $17.56.

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.