Pembina Pipeline Co. (NYSE:PBA) Short Interest Update

Pembina Pipeline Co. (NYSE:PBA) (TSE:PPL) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest during the month of June. As of June 30th, there was short interest totalling 6,350,000 shares, a drop of 64.5% from the June 15th total of 17,880,000 shares. Approximately 1.1% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,180,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.4 days.

Pembina Pipeline Stock Performance

Shares of PBA stock traded down $0.09 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $37.52. The stock had a trading volume of 1,428,008 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,120,991. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.76 billion, a PE ratio of 16.33, a PEG ratio of 5.33 and a beta of 1.25. Pembina Pipeline has a twelve month low of $28.15 and a twelve month high of $37.90. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $36.79 and its 200 day moving average is $35.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 0.93.

Pembina Pipeline (NYSE:PBA) (TSE:PPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 9th. The pipeline company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.54. Pembina Pipeline had a return on equity of 13.33% and a net margin of 21.61%. The business had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.83 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that Pembina Pipeline will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pembina Pipeline Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 17th were given a $0.501 dividend. This is a boost from Pembina Pipeline’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 17th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.34%. Pembina Pipeline’s dividend payout ratio is presently 86.96%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Pembina Pipeline in the fourth quarter valued at $133,917,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its holdings in Pembina Pipeline by 86.6% in the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 5,344,325 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $188,814,000 after purchasing an additional 2,480,570 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors acquired a new stake in Pembina Pipeline in the fourth quarter valued at $32,541,000. ClearBridge Investments Ltd grew its holdings in Pembina Pipeline by 12.3% in the first quarter. ClearBridge Investments Ltd now owns 7,173,059 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $253,496,000 after purchasing an additional 784,814 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP grew its holdings in Pembina Pipeline by 31.1% in the first quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 2,969,440 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $104,940,000 after purchasing an additional 704,249 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PBA has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. CIBC raised their price objective on Pembina Pipeline from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperformer” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Scotiabank cut Pembina Pipeline from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, May 19th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Pembina Pipeline from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, May 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $52.00.

About Pembina Pipeline

Pembina Pipeline Corporation provides energy transportation and midstream services. It operates through three segments: Pipelines, Facilities, and Marketing & New Ventures. The Pipelines segment operates conventional, oil sands and heavy oil, and transmission assets with a transportation capacity of 2.9 millions of barrels of oil equivalent per day, the ground storage capacity of 10 millions of barrels, and rail terminalling capacity of approximately 105 thousands of barrels of oil equivalent per day serving markets and basins across North America.