Plains GP Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:PAGP)

Plains GP Holdings, L.P. (NYSE:PAGP) was the target of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Traders acquired 10,187 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 685% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,297 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Plains GP

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Plains GP by 17.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 640,918 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $11,857,000 after purchasing an additional 93,643 shares during the last quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Plains GP by 24.7% in the fourth quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 8,218,030 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $151,047,000 after buying an additional 1,629,008 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Plains GP in the second quarter valued at approximately $566,000. Vestcor Inc grew its position in shares of Plains GP by 79.1% during the third quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 78,442 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,451,000 after acquiring an additional 34,633 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT grew its position in shares of Plains GP by 1.2% during 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 acquiring an additional 53,000 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.30% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on PAGP. Morgan Stanley lowered Plains GP from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $22.00 to $19.00 in a report on Friday, October 25th. StockNews.com upgraded Plains GP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Plains GP from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Plains GP from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $22.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Plains GP from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given 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 price target of $20.22.

Plains GP Stock Down 0.3 %

PAGP stock opened at $21.43 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $19.08 and its two-hundred day moving average is $18.89. Plains GP has a twelve month low of $15.78 and a twelve month high of $21.73. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock has a market cap of $4.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.54 and a beta of 1.58.

Plains GP Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This is a boost from Plains GP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.09%. Plains GP’s payout ratio is 149.41%.

Plains GP Company Profile

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.