Clearbridge Investments LLC Sells 398,337 Shares of Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE:PAA)

Clearbridge Investments LLC lessened its position in shares of Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE:PAA) by 11.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,138,271 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 398,337 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC owned approximately 0.45% of Plains All American Pipeline worth $53,602,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Plains All American Pipeline during the 4th quarter valued at $1,708,000. Stifel Financial Corp boosted its stake in Plains All American Pipeline by 30.6% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 230,729 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $4,008,000 after buying an additional 54,111 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its position in Plains All American Pipeline by 91.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 600,282 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $10,427,000 after buying an additional 286,222 shares in the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC increased its stake in Plains All American Pipeline by 47.0% in the 4th quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 45,151 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $771,000 after acquiring an additional 14,432 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caprock Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline in the 4th quarter valued at about $591,000. 41.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on PAA. Wolfe Research upgraded 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 research report on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of 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. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Plains All American Pipeline from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $22.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Raymond James raised their price target on Plains All American Pipeline from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Plains All American Pipeline from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.23.

Plains All American Pipeline Stock Performance

Shares of PAA stock opened at $20.00 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $14.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.40 and a beta of 1.62. Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. has a fifty-two week low of $16.21 and a fifty-two week high of $21.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.01. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $20.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $18.47.

Plains All American Pipeline Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st were given a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.60%. This is a boost from Plains All American Pipeline’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. Plains All American Pipeline’s dividend payout ratio is presently 208.22%.

About Plains All American Pipeline

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.