Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE:PAA) Hits New 52-Week High on Analyst Upgrade

Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE:PAA) shares 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 traded. The stock had previously closed at $19.40.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Plains All American Pipeline

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PAA. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Plains All American Pipeline by 2.4% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 312,593 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $5,583,000 after acquiring an additional 7,452 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its position in Plains All American Pipeline by 31.2% during the 2nd 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 period. Inspire Investing LLC bought a new position in Plains All American Pipeline during the 2nd quarter worth $818,000. Bridges Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Plains All American Pipeline by 75.9% in the second quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. now owns 136,937 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,446,000 after buying an additional 59,076 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in Plains All American Pipeline by 39.9% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 207,802 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,711,000 after buying an additional 59,293 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.78% of the company’s stock.

Plains All American Pipeline Price Performance

The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $17.81 and a 200-day simple moving average of $17.74. The company has a market capitalization of $14.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.91 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE:PAA) last posted its earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The pipeline company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.06. Plains All American Pipeline had a net margin of 2.08% and a return on equity of 11.63%. The firm had revenue of $12.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.35 EPS. Plains All American Pipeline’s revenue was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be issued a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.58%. This is a positive change 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 dividend payout ratio is 113.39%.

Plains All American Pipeline Company Profile

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.