Analyzing Plains All American Pipeline (PAA) and Its Rivals

Plains All American Pipeline (NASDAQ:PAA) is one of 16 public companies in the “Pipelines, Except Natural Gas” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Plains All American Pipeline to similar companies based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, risk, dividends, profitability and earnings.

Volatility & Risk

Plains All American Pipeline has a beta of 0.59, suggesting that its stock price is 41% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Plains All American Pipeline’s peers have a beta of 0.95, suggesting that their average stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

41.8% of Plains All American Pipeline shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.7% of shares of all “Pipelines, Except Natural Gas” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of Plains All American Pipeline shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.9% of shares of all “Pipelines, Except Natural Gas” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Plains All American Pipeline pays an annual dividend of $1.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.6%. Plains All American Pipeline pays out 125.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Pipelines, Except Natural Gas” companies pay a dividend yield of 7.7% and pay out 112.0% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Plains All American Pipeline and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Plains All American Pipeline	0	0	1	0	3.00
Plains All American Pipeline Competitors	143	1395	1355	169	2.51

As a group, “Pipelines, Except Natural Gas” companies have a potential upside of 8.67%. Given Plains All American Pipeline’s peers higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Plains All American Pipeline has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Profitability

This table compares Plains All American Pipeline and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Plains All American Pipeline	2.42%	11.04%	4.41%
Plains All American Pipeline Competitors	32.45%	36.20%	10.59%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Plains All American Pipeline and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Plains All American Pipeline	$46.92 billion	$772.00 million	14.55
Plains All American Pipeline Competitors	$9.93 billion	$374.42 million	15.93

Plains All American Pipeline has higher revenue and earnings than its peers. Plains All American Pipeline is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Plains All American Pipeline peers beat Plains All American Pipeline on 10 of the 15 factors compared.

Plains All American Pipeline Company Profile

Plains All American Pipeline, L.P., through its subsidiaries, engages in the pipeline transportation, terminalling, storage, and gathering of crude oil and natural gas liquids (NGL) in the United States and Canada. The company operates in two segments, Crude Oil and NGL. The Crude Oil segment offers gathering and transporting crude oil through pipelines, gathering systems, trucks, and at times on barges or railcars. This segment provides terminalling, storage, and other facilities-related services, as well as merchant activities. As of December 31, 2021, this segment owned and leased 18,300 miles of active crude oil transportation pipelines and gathering systems, as well as an additional 110 miles of pipelines that supports crude oil storage and terminalling facilities; 74 million barrels of commercial crude oil storage capacity; 38 million barrels of active, above-ground tank capacity; four marine facilities; a condensate processing facility; seven crude oil rail terminals and 2,100 crude oil railcars; and 640 trucks and 1,275 trailers. The Natural Gas Liquids segment engages in the natural gas processing, NGL fractionation, storage, transportation, and terminalling activities. As of December 31, 2021, this segment owned and operated four natural gas processing plants; nine fractionation plants; 28 million barrels of NGL storage capacity; approximately 1,620 miles of active NGL transportation pipelines, as well as an additional 55 miles of pipeline that supports NGL storage facilities; 16 NGL rail terminals and approximately 3,900 NGL rail cars; and approximately 220 trailers. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.