Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Cuts Stake in Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE:PAA)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System cut its holdings in shares of Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE:PAA) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 383,087 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 7,589 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System owned 0.05% of Plains All American Pipeline worth $6,543,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline in the fourth quarter valued at $1,708,000. Stifel Financial Corp raised its position in Plains All American Pipeline by 30.6% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 230,729 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $4,008,000 after purchasing an additional 54,111 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 91.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 600,282 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $10,427,000 after buying an additional 286,222 shares during the period. PFG Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline by 47.0% in the 4th quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 45,151 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $771,000 after buying an additional 14,432 shares during the period. Finally, Caprock Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Plains All American Pipeline during the fourth quarter worth approximately $591,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.78% of the company’s stock.

Plains All American Pipeline Stock Performance

Shares of PAA opened at $20.19 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The firm has a market cap of $14.21 billion, a PE ratio of 27.66 and a beta of 1.62. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $19.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.31. Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. has a 12-month low of $16.21 and a 12-month high of $21.00.

Plains All American Pipeline Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st were given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This is an increase from Plains All American Pipeline’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 31st. Plains All American Pipeline’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 208.22%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on PAA shares. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Plains All American Pipeline from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Plains All American Pipeline from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Plains All American Pipeline from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $22.00 to $20.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays raised their price target on 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. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price objective 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. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Plains All American Pipeline has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $19.92.

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.