Vident Advisory LLC Invests $6.74 Million in Pembina Pipeline Co. (NYSE:PBA)

Vident Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Pembina Pipeline Co. (NYSE:PBA - Free Report) TSE: PPL in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 182,472 shares of the pipeline company's stock, valued at approximately $6,738,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sound Income Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Pembina Pipeline during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Principal Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in Pembina Pipeline by 2,597.1% in the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 917 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 883 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Pembina Pipeline by 880.0% in the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 980 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 880 shares during the period. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Pembina Pipeline in the fourth quarter valued at $37,000. Finally, Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich acquired a new stake in Pembina Pipeline in the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. 55.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Citigroup raised Pembina Pipeline from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Pembina Pipeline presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $56.00.

Pembina Pipeline Price Performance

Pembina Pipeline stock traded up $0.36 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $37.51. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,151,616 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,262,221. Pembina Pipeline Co. has a fifty-two week low of $34.13 and a fifty-two week high of $43.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.65. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $38.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.79 billion, a PE ratio of 15.50 and a beta of 0.81.

Pembina Pipeline (NYSE:PBA - Get Free Report) TSE: PPL last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The pipeline company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.47 billion. Pembina Pipeline had a return on equity of 13.62% and a net margin of 25.39%. The business's revenue was up 48.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.73 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Pembina Pipeline Co. will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Pembina Pipeline Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.5109 per share. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. This is an increase from Pembina Pipeline's previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. Pembina Pipeline's payout ratio is 89.14%.

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.