Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Makes New $562,000 Investment in Plains GP Holdings, L.P. (NYSE:PAGP)

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Plains GP Holdings, L.P. (NYSE:PAGP) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 30,573 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $562,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Plains GP by 17.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 640,918 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $11,857,000 after purchasing an additional 93,643 shares in the last quarter. Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new position in shares of Plains GP during the 4th quarter worth approximately $265,000. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Plains GP by 24.7% in the 4th 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 period. Vestcor Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Plains GP by 79.1% in the 3rd 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 during the period. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund purchased a new stake in shares of Plains GP in the third quarter valued at approximately $4,013,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.30% of the company’s stock.

Plains GP Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of PAGP opened at $20.75 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 0.92. Plains GP Holdings, L.P. has a 1-year low of $17.17 and a 1-year high of $22.31. The stock has a market cap of $4.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.15 and a beta of 1.55. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $20.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $19.43.

Plains GP Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 GP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.33%. Plains GP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 286.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PAGP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com cut Plains GP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Plains GP from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of Plains GP from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Plains GP from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut Plains GP from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $22.00 to $20.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Plains GP currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.60.

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.