Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE:PAA) Sets New 1-Year High on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE:PAA) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday after Barclays raised their price target on the stock from $18.00 to $19.00. Barclays currently has an underweight rating on the stock. Plains All American Pipeline traded as high as $19.66 and last traded at $19.35, with a volume of 4173325 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $19.40.

PAA has been the topic of several other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Plains All American Pipeline from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $22.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $18.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $19.00 target price on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a report on Friday, November 15th. Scotiabank reiterated a “sector outperform” rating and set a $23.00 target price on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded Plains All American Pipeline from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $22.00 to $19.00 in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $19.92.

Institutional Trading of Plains All American Pipeline

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PAA. Axiom Advisory LLC boosted its position in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Axiom Advisory LLC now owns 15,300 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $274,000 after buying an additional 750 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its stake in Plains All American Pipeline by 16.3% in the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 6,094 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $109,000 after purchasing an additional 856 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 5.1% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 18,146 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $315,000 after buying an additional 887 shares during the period. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 263,645 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,580,000 after purchasing an additional 1,047 shares during the period. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its stake in Plains All American Pipeline by 31.2% in the second quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 4,460 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $80,000 after purchasing an additional 1,060 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.78% of the company’s stock.

Plains All American Pipeline Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The company has a market cap of $14.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.91 and a beta of 1.64. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $17.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $17.74.

Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE:PAA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The pipeline company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $12.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.09 billion. Plains All American Pipeline had a return on equity of 11.63% and a net margin of 2.08%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.35 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. will post 1.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Plains All American Pipeline Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.58%. This is a boost from Plains All American Pipeline’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. Plains All American Pipeline’s payout ratio is 113.39%.

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.