Plains GP Holdings, L.P. (NYSE:PAGP) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Plains GP Holdings, L.P. (NYSE:PAGP) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the ten ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have issued a hold recommendation, four have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $20.60.

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wolfe Research raised Plains GP from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Barclays raised their target price on Plains GP from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com lowered Plains GP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Plains GP from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $22.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price target on Plains GP from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Plains GP by 17.1% in the third 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 period. Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new position in shares of Plains GP in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $265,000. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,629,008 shares during the period. Vestcor Inc boosted its stake in shares of Plains GP by 79.1% in the third quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 78,442 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,451,000 after buying an additional 34,633 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Plato Investment Management Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Plains GP by 144.2% in the fourth quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 35,812 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $661,000 after buying an additional 21,146 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.30% of the company’s stock.

Plains GP Stock Performance

Shares of PAGP opened at $21.34 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $21.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $19.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.22 billion, a PE ratio of 40.26 and a beta of 1.55. Plains GP has a 1 year low of $17.17 and a 1 year high of $22.31.

Plains GP Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st were issued a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 31st. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.12%. This is a positive change from Plains GP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. Plains GP’s payout ratio is presently 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.