Short Interest in Pembina Pipeline Co. (NYSE:PBA) Declines By 19.3%

Pembina Pipeline Co. (NYSE:PBA) (TSE:PPL) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,800,000 shares, a decrease of 19.3% from the March 31st total of 7,190,000 shares. Currently, 1.1% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,050,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.5 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on PBA shares. TheStreet upgraded shares of Pembina Pipeline from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Pembina Pipeline from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Finally, CIBC raised their price target on shares of Pembina Pipeline from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a research note on Friday, April 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.00.

Pembina Pipeline Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PBA traded up $0.11 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $35.82. 724,959 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,113,872. The firm has a market cap of $20.76 billion, a PE ratio of 16.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.33 and a beta of 1.20. Pembina Pipeline has a fifty-two week low of $28.15 and a fifty-two week high of $36.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $35.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $33.75.

Pembina Pipeline (NYSE:PBA) (TSE:PPL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The pipeline company reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.34. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.83 billion. Pembina Pipeline had a net margin of 19.43% and a return on equity of 13.11%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Pembina Pipeline will post 2.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pembina Pipeline Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.4944 per share. This represents a $1.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.52%. This is a boost from Pembina Pipeline’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Pembina Pipeline’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 89.14%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pembina Pipeline

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Pembina Pipeline by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,592,770 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $743,223,000 after purchasing an additional 370,234 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its position in Pembina Pipeline by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 14,837,544 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $510,857,000 after buying an additional 171,960 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its position in Pembina Pipeline by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 13,391,140 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $402,538,000 after buying an additional 131,487 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in Pembina Pipeline by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 12,652,115 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $435,812,000 after buying an additional 680,945 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its position in Pembina Pipeline by 8.3% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 7,699,608 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $231,450,000 after buying an additional 593,061 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.37% of the company’s stock.

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.