Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Buys New Position in Plains GP Holdings, L.P. (NYSE:PAGP)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. acquired a new position in shares of Plains GP Holdings, L.P. (NYSE:PAGP) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 8,613 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $158,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of PAGP. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Plains GP by 24.7% during 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 during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Plains GP by 10.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,167,192 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $58,213,000 after buying an additional 288,430 shares during the period. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY grew its stake in shares of Plains GP by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 1,535,470 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $28,222,000 after purchasing an additional 34,894 shares during the last quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC grew its position in Plains GP by 11.6% in the 4th quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 835,254 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $15,352,000 after buying an additional 86,714 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Plains GP by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 750,930 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $13,802,000 after acquiring an additional 18,595 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays increased their price objective on Plains GP from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Raymond James increased their target price on Plains GP from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Plains GP from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $22.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. StockNews.com lowered Plains GP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Plains GP from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $21.00.

Plains GP Price Performance

PAGP opened at $21.47 on Wednesday. Plains GP Holdings, L.P. has a twelve month low of $17.17 and a twelve month high of $22.31. 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 firm has a market cap of $4.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.51 and a beta of 1.55. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $21.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $19.72.

Plains GP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This is a boost from Plains GP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.08%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. Plains GP’s dividend payout ratio is 286.79%.

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.