Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Plains All American Pipeline (NASDAQ:PAA)

Plains All American Pipeline Lp (NASDAQ:PAA) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors acquired 78,076 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 726% compared to the average volume of 9,454 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PAA has been the subject of several recent research reports. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Plains All American Pipeline from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. US Capital Advisors lowered Plains All American Pipeline from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Citigroup increased their target price on Plains All American Pipeline from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $23.00 target price on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Plains All American Pipeline currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $23.23.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PAA. Americana Partners LLC increased its holdings in Plains All American Pipeline by 110.9% during the 4th quarter. Americana Partners LLC now owns 578,541 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,391,000 after purchasing an additional 304,247 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in Plains All American Pipeline by 17.8% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 20,049,972 shares of the company’s stock worth $360,097,000 after purchasing an additional 3,033,216 shares in the last quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC grew its holdings in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 21.5% during the fourth quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 1,594,440 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,636,000 after purchasing an additional 281,609 shares during the last quarter. GraniteShares Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline during the fourth quarter worth $2,717,000. Finally, Wealthstar Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 152.0% during the first quarter. Wealthstar Advisors LLC now owns 103,580 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,313,000 after purchasing an additional 62,477 shares during the last quarter. 41.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Plains All American Pipeline Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of Plains All American Pipeline stock opened at $24.82 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.88 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $22.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $21.77. Plains All American Pipeline has a 12-month low of $15.69 and a 12-month high of $25.03.

Plains All American Pipeline (NASDAQ:PAA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.41 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $12.47 billion for the quarter. Plains All American Pipeline had a net margin of 2.53% and a return on equity of 12.17%. The firm’s revenue was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.39 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Plains All American Pipeline will post 1.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Plains All American Pipeline Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.4175 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 31st. This represents a $1.67 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.7%. Plains All American Pipeline’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 127.48%.

About Plains All American Pipeline

Plains All American Pipeline (NASDAQ: PAA) is a publicly traded energy infrastructure company that provides midstream services for crude oil and natural gas liquids (NGLs). The company’s core activities include gathering, transporting, storing and marketing hydrocarbons, using an integrated network of pipelines, storage terminals, rail and truck transloading facilities. Plains also offers logistics and marketing services that connect upstream producers with refiners, traders and export markets.

Plains owns and operates a portfolio of pipeline and terminal assets concentrated in major U.S.