Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nine analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $49.89.

MPLX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays upped their target price on Mplx from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Mplx in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $43.00 target price for the company. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Mplx from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Mplx from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Carl Kristopher Hagedorn sold 4,000 shares of Mplx stock in a transaction that occurred 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. The trade was a 21.33 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Institutional Trading of Mplx

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Glenmede Trust Co. NA boosted its stake in shares of Mplx by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 149,509 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $6,647,000 after acquiring an additional 10,000 shares in the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC boosted its position 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. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Mplx by 7.4% in the third quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 280,885 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $12,488,000 after purchasing an additional 19,320 shares during the period. ING Groep NV increased its position in shares of Mplx by 69.8% in the third quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 6,628,400 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $294,699,000 after buying an additional 2,725,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Mplx by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 1,276,828 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $56,768,000 after buying an additional 64,714 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Mplx Stock Up 2.0 %

NYSE:MPLX opened at $49.73 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $48.21 and its 200-day simple moving average is $44.95. 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 fifty-two week low of $36.76 and a fifty-two week high of $51.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $50.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 1.43.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The pipeline company reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.05 by ($0.04). Mplx had a return on equity of 32.70% and a net margin of 36.77%. 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 prior year, the firm posted $0.89 earnings per share. Mplx’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Mplx will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th were given a dividend of $0.9565 per share. This is an increase from Mplx’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.83 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 90.09%.

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.