Royal Bank of Canada Raises Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) Price Target to $52.00

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) had its price objective hoisted by stock analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $50.00 to $52.00 in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the pipeline company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price indicates a potential upside of 9.11% from the stock’s previous close.

MPLX has been the topic of several other research reports. UBS Group increased their target price on Mplx from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Mplx from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Mplx in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $43.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Mplx from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Mplx from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Mplx presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.44.

Mplx Price Performance

Mplx stock opened at $47.66 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $44.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.99. Mplx has a 1 year low of $35.51 and a 1 year high of $47.71. The company has a market capitalization of $48.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.37.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The pipeline company reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by ($0.04). Mplx had a net margin of 36.77% and a return on equity of 32.70%. The firm had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.89 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Mplx will post 4.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Mplx

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group increased its holdings in shares of Mplx by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 24,201 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,076,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Mplx by 5.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,488 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $689,000 after purchasing an additional 785 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp purchased a new position in Mplx in the third quarter valued at approximately $2,023,000. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. increased its stake in Mplx by 4.9% in the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 1,933,486 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $85,963,000 after purchasing an additional 90,793 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC raised its holdings in Mplx by 387.5% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 23,543 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,047,000 after purchasing an additional 18,714 shares in the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Mplx

MPLX LP owns and operates midstream energy infrastructure and logistics assets primarily in the United States. It operates in two segments, Logistics and Storage, and Gathering and Processing. The company is involved in the gathering, processing, and transportation of natural gas; gathering, transportation, fractionation, storage, and marketing of natural gas liquids; gathering, storage, transportation, and distribution of crude oil and refined products, as well as other hydrocarbon-based products and renewables; and sale of residue gas and condensate.