Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH Acquires 198,000 Shares of Plains GP Holdings, L.P. (NYSE:PAGP)

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH lifted its holdings in shares of Plains GP Holdings, L.P. (NYSE:PAGP) by 114.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 370,496 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 198,000 shares during the quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH owned approximately 0.19% of Plains GP worth $6,810,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Plains GP by 24.7% in the 4th quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 8,218,030 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $151,047,000 after purchasing an additional 1,629,008 shares in the last quarter. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT raised its stake in Plains GP by 1.2% in the third quarter. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT now owns 4,373,000 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $80,900,000 after buying an additional 53,000 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its holdings in Plains GP by 10.5% in the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,804,713 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $33,965,000 after buying an additional 171,217 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in Plains GP by 8.5% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 1,313,974 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $24,309,000 after acquiring an additional 103,353 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC purchased a new position in shares of Plains GP during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $13,848,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.30% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on PAGP shares. Barclays raised their target price on Plains GP from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Plains GP from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $22.00 to $19.00 in a report on Friday, October 25th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Plains GP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Plains GP from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $22.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Plains GP from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.22.

Plains GP Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PAGP opened at $21.85 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $4.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.71 and a beta of 1.58. Plains GP Holdings, L.P. has a twelve month low of $15.78 and a twelve month high of $22.31. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The company has a 50 day moving average of $19.23 and a 200 day moving average of $18.91.

Plains GP (NYSE:PAGP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The pipeline company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by ($0.21). Plains GP had a net margin of 0.33% and a return on equity of 1.12%. The business had revenue of $12.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.17 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.15 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Plains GP Holdings, L.P. will post 0.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Plains GP Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This is a positive change from Plains GP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.96%. Plains GP’s payout ratio is currently 149.41%.

About Plains GP

Plains GP Holdings, L.P., through its subsidiary, Plains All American Pipeline, L.P., owns and operates midstream infrastructure systems in the United States and Canada. It operates in two segments, Crude Oil and Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs). The company engages in the gathering and transporting crude oil and NGLs using pipelines, gathering systems, and trucks.