Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE:PAA) Hits New 12-Month High – Should You Buy?

Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE:PAA)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $19.66 and last traded at $19.35, with a volume of 4173325 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $19.40.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on PAA shares. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $18.00 price objective on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company cut 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 report on Wednesday, December 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $19.00 price target on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Morgan Stanley lowered Plains All American Pipeline from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $22.00 to $19.00 in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Scotiabank reaffirmed a “sector outperform” rating and issued a $23.00 price objective on shares of Plains All American Pipeline in a report on Friday, January 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.00.

Plains All American Pipeline Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $13.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.50 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. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $17.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $17.70.

Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE:PAA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 8th. The pipeline company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $12.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.09 billion. Plains All American Pipeline had a net margin of 2.08% and a return on equity of 11.63%. Plains All American Pipeline’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.35 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. will post 1.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Plains All American Pipeline Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This is a boost from Plains All American Pipeline’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.86%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. Plains All American Pipeline’s dividend payout ratio is presently 113.39%.

Institutional Trading of Plains All American Pipeline

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PAA. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 312,593 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $5,583,000 after buying an additional 7,452 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 31.2% in the 2nd quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 4,460 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $80,000 after buying an additional 1,060 shares during the period. Inspire Investing LLC acquired a new position in Plains All American Pipeline during the 2nd quarter valued at about $818,000. Bridges Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake 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 valued at $2,446,000 after acquiring an additional 59,076 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 39.9% during the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 207,802 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,711,000 after purchasing an additional 59,293 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 41.78% of the company’s stock.

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.