Pembina Pipeline Co. (NYSE:PBA) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Shares of Pembina Pipeline Co. (NYSE:PBA - Get Free Report) TSE: PPL have earned an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the six ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $56.00.

Several brokerages have recently commented on PBA. Citigroup raised Pembina Pipeline from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating on shares of Pembina Pipeline in a research note on Tuesday, June 3rd.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Pembina Pipeline by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 225,684 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $8,335,000 after purchasing an additional 16,762 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Pembina Pipeline by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 22,903 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $846,000 after acquiring an additional 348 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Co. raised its position in Pembina Pipeline by 20.9% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Co. now owns 337,379 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $12,466,000 after purchasing an additional 58,366 shares in the last quarter. Korea Investment CORP boosted its position in Pembina Pipeline by 32.7% in the fourth quarter. Korea Investment CORP now owns 440,818 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $16,279,000 after buying an additional 108,529 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its stake in Pembina Pipeline by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 6,249,624 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $230,610,000 after purchasing an additional 32,519 shares in the last quarter. 55.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Pembina Pipeline Price Performance

Shares of PBA stock traded up $0.39 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $38.45. 1,496,822 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,286,537. The firm has a market cap of $22.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.89 and a beta of 0.76. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $37.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.75. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. Pembina Pipeline has a fifty-two week low of $34.13 and a fifty-two week high of $43.44.

Pembina Pipeline (NYSE:PBA - Get Free Report) TSE: PPL last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The pipeline company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.23. Pembina Pipeline had a return on equity of 13.62% and a net margin of 25.39%. The firm had revenue of $1.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.47 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.73 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 48.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Pembina Pipeline will post 2.15 EPS 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 is a positive change from Pembina Pipeline's previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.31%. Pembina Pipeline's payout ratio is 93.21%.

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.