Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE:PAA)

Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE:PAA) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors acquired 4,020 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 55% compared to the average daily volume of 2,595 call options.

Plains All American Pipeline Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PAA traded up $0.15 on Tuesday, hitting $17.06. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 658,755 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,845,772. Plains All American Pipeline has a 12-month low of $15.02 and a 12-month high of $19.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $17.44 and a 200-day moving average of $17.63. The company has a market capitalization of $12.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.23 and a beta of 1.64.

Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE:PAA) last announced its earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The pipeline company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $12.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.09 billion. Plains All American Pipeline had a net margin of 2.08% and a return on equity of 11.63%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.35 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Plains All American Pipeline will post 1.24 EPS for the current year.

Plains All American Pipeline Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 31st were given a dividend of $0.3175 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $1.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.44%. Plains All American Pipeline’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 113.39%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Plains All American Pipeline from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $22.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Bank of America started coverage on Plains All American Pipeline in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $18.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Plains All American Pipeline from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the company from $22.00 to $19.00 in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $19.00 price objective on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a research note on Friday, November 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $19.82.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. boosted its holdings in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 18,854,069 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $336,734,000 after purchasing an additional 57,289 shares during the last quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 4,140,089 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $71,913,000 after purchasing an additional 42,383 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 48.9% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 3,428,897 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $59,560,000 after purchasing an additional 1,125,386 shares during the period. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY increased its position in Plains All American Pipeline by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 2,548,723 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $45,520,000 after purchasing an additional 48,799 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its position in Plains All American Pipeline by 1.6% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 2,008,321 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $34,885,000 after buying an additional 32,061 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.78% of the company’s stock.

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.