Traders Purchase Large Volume of Put Options on Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE:PAA)

Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE:PAA) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Traders bought 15,433 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 153% compared to the average volume of 6,089 put options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Plains All American Pipeline

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in Plains All American Pipeline during the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Plains All American Pipeline in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. National Bank of Canada FI purchased a new stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its holdings in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 1,684.0% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 3,568 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 3,368 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CoreFirst Bank & Trust purchased a new position in shares of Plains All American Pipeline in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $97,000. 41.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Plains All American Pipeline Stock Down 9.9 %

NYSE:PAA opened at $17.34 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $19.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.01. Plains All American Pipeline has a fifty-two week low of $16.21 and a fifty-two week high of $21.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.75 and a beta of 1.62.

Plains All American Pipeline Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. Plains All American Pipeline’s dividend payout ratio is currently 208.22%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PAA has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Plains All American Pipeline from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Plains All American Pipeline from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Plains All American Pipeline from $19.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Scotiabank decreased their target price on Plains All American Pipeline from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Plains All American Pipeline from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $22.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.23.

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.