Geode Capital Management LLC Increases Position in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 5.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 15,488 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 785 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Mplx were worth $689,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. ING Groep NV increased its stake in shares of Mplx by 69.8% during the third quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 6,628,400 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $294,699,000 after acquiring an additional 2,725,000 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Mplx by 0.8% during the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 5,735,562 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $255,003,000 after acquiring an additional 45,271 shares during the period. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC grew its position in Mplx by 0.6% during the third quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 5,580,052 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $248,089,000 after buying an additional 34,659 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. grew its position in Mplx by 1.2% during the second quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 1,998,243 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $85,105,000 after buying an additional 24,091 shares during the period. Finally, Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. grew its position in Mplx by 4.9% during the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 1,933,486 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $85,963,000 after buying an additional 90,793 shares during the period. 24.25% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Mplx from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Barclays upped their target price 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. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Mplx from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Mplx from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.56.

Mplx Stock Performance

Shares of MPLX opened at $48.42 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.99. The company has a market capitalization of $49.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.42, a PEG ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 1.43. Mplx Lp has a 1 year low of $36.76 and a 1 year high of $51.94. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $48.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $44.83.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The pipeline company reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by ($0.04). Mplx had a return on equity of 32.70% and a net margin of 36.77%. The company had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.09 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.89 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Mplx Lp will post 4.18 EPS for the current year.

Mplx Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th were issued a dividend of $0.9565 per share. This represents a $3.83 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.90%. This is a positive change from Mplx’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 90.09%.

Insider Activity at Mplx

In other Mplx news, VP Carl Kristopher Hagedorn sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.24, for a total transaction of $188,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 14,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $696,790. This trade represents a 21.33 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

About Mplx

MPLX LP engages in the operation of midstream energy infrastructure and logistics assets, and distribution fuels services. It operates through the Logistics and Storage (L&S) and Gathering and Processing (G&P) segments. The Logistics and Storage segment transports, stores, distributes, and markets crude oil, asphalt, refined petroleum products, and water.