Plains All American Pipeline Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:PAA)

Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE:PAA) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders bought 9,116 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 251% compared to the average volume of 2,594 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PAA has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Plains All American Pipeline from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $22.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $19.00 price target on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a report on Friday, November 15th. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $18.00 target price for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded Plains All American Pipeline from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $22.00 to $19.00 in a research report on Friday, October 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $19.82.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Plains All American Pipeline

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PAA. Stifel Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 30.6% during the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 230,729 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,008,000 after purchasing an additional 54,111 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Plains All American Pipeline by 91.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 600,282 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $10,427,000 after purchasing an additional 286,222 shares during the last quarter. Syntax Research Inc. purchased a new position in Plains All American Pipeline in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,742,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Plains All American Pipeline by 1,006.4% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 67,038 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,164,000 after purchasing an additional 60,979 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 58.9% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,221,571 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $125,439,000 after buying an additional 2,677,951 shares in the last quarter. 41.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Plains All American Pipeline Trading Up 5.2 %

NYSE PAA traded up $0.91 on Wednesday, reaching $18.54. The stock had a trading volume of 3,073,783 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,851,308. Plains All American Pipeline has a 12-month low of $15.02 and a 12-month high of $19.17. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $17.44 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $17.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.55 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 8th. The pipeline company reported $0.37 earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations of $13.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.35 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Plains All American Pipeline will post 1.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.