Brokerages Set Pembina Pipeline Co. (NYSE:PBA) Price Target at $44.75

Pembina Pipeline Co. (NYSE:PBA) (TSE:PPL) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the three analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $44.75.

A number of research firms have weighed in on PBA. TheStreet upgraded shares of Pembina Pipeline from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Pembina Pipeline from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, CIBC upped their price objective on shares of Pembina Pipeline from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperformer” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th.

Pembina Pipeline Stock Performance

PBA opened at $35.50 on Friday. 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 firm has a fifty day moving average price of $34.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $33.66. Pembina Pipeline has a 1 year low of $28.15 and a 1 year high of $36.17. The stock has a market cap of $20.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.06, a P/E/G ratio of 5.21 and a beta of 1.20.

Pembina Pipeline (NYSE:PBA) (TSE:PPL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The pipeline company reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 2.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Pembina Pipeline Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.4944 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.57%. This is a positive change from Pembina Pipeline’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. Pembina Pipeline’s dividend payout ratio is currently 89.14%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pembina Pipeline

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PBA. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Pembina Pipeline in the fourth quarter valued at about $133,917,000. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund lifted its position in shares of Pembina Pipeline by 340.0% during the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 2,640,000 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $79,412,000 after purchasing an additional 2,040,000 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors acquired a new stake in shares of Pembina Pipeline during the fourth quarter worth about $32,541,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Pembina Pipeline by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 12,652,115 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $435,812,000 after purchasing an additional 680,945 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its position in shares of Pembina Pipeline by 8.3% during the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 7,699,608 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $231,450,000 after purchasing an additional 593,061 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.