Short Interest in Pembina Pipeline Co. (NYSE:PBA) Expands By 43.5%

Pembina Pipeline Co. (NYSE:PBA) (TSE:PPL) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,270,000 shares, an increase of 43.5% from the January 31st total of 4,370,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,510,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.2 days. Approximately 1.1% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Institutional Trading of Pembina Pipeline

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. PDT Partners LLC bought a new stake in Pembina Pipeline in the third quarter worth $1,329,000. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of Pembina Pipeline by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 225,684 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $8,335,000 after purchasing an additional 16,762 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Pembina Pipeline by 18.2% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,049,470 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $167,000,000 after purchasing an additional 624,958 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in Pembina Pipeline by 32.3% in the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 616,992 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $22,786,000 after purchasing an additional 150,689 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its position in Pembina Pipeline by 1,396.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 547,448 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $22,573,000 after purchasing an additional 510,873 shares during the last quarter. 55.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Pembina Pipeline Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of Pembina Pipeline stock opened at $38.37 on Wednesday. Pembina Pipeline has a 1 year low of $33.83 and a 1 year high of $43.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.51. The company has a 50-day moving average of $36.77 and a 200 day moving average of $39.40. The firm has a market cap of $22.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.86 and a beta of 1.25.

Pembina Pipeline Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.4783 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. This represents a $1.91 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.99%. Pembina Pipeline’s payout ratio is 86.30%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on PBA shares. TD Securities assumed coverage on shares of Pembina Pipeline in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company cut Pembina Pipeline from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Barclays started coverage on Pembina Pipeline in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued an “overweight” rating for the company. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $56.50.

About Pembina Pipeline

Pembina Pipeline Corporation provides energy transportation and midstream services. It operates through three segments: Pipelines, Facilities, and Marketing & New Ventures. The Pipelines segment operates conventional, oil sands and heavy oil, and transmission assets with a transportation capacity of 2.9 millions of barrels of oil equivalent per day, the ground storage capacity of 10 millions of barrels, and rail terminalling capacity of approximately 105 thousands of barrels of oil equivalent per day serving markets and basins across North America.