Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Raises Stake in Mplx Lp $MPLX

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its stake in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 239.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 65,715 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 46,343 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.’s holdings in Mplx were worth $3,507,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Solstein Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Mplx during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. EQ Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Mplx during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Wiser Advisor Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Mplx during the 3rd quarter worth $38,000. Root Financial Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Mplx during the 3rd quarter worth $39,000. Finally, Groesbeck Investment Management Corp NJ acquired a new position in shares of Mplx during the 4th quarter worth $49,000. 24.25% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on MPLX. Zacks Research downgraded Mplx from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Truist Financial cut their price target on Mplx from $67.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Mplx from $62.00 to $60.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Mplx from a “buy (a)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on Mplx from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $61.60.

Mplx Trading Up 0.0%

Shares of MPLX stock opened at $56.47 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $56.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $55.46. Mplx Lp has a twelve month low of $47.80 and a twelve month high of $59.98. The company has a market capitalization of $57.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.22, a PEG ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a current ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.71.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.05 by ($0.15). Mplx had a net margin of 36.38% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The firm had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.10 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Mplx Lp will post 4.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Friday, May 8th were paid a $1.0765 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 8th. This represents a $4.31 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.6%. Mplx’s payout ratio is presently 93.29%.

Mplx Company Profile

MPLX LP (NYSE: MPLX) is a midstream master limited partnership that owns, operates and develops energy infrastructure primarily across the United States. The company provides a range of midstream services including the gathering, transportation, storage and distribution of crude oil, refined petroleum products, natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs). MPLX also operates processing and fractionation facilities and supplies logistics services that connect producers, refiners and end-use markets.

The partnership’s asset base includes pipelines, storage terminals, rail and marine facilities, natural gas processing plants and NGL fractionators.