Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have issued a hold recommendation, seven have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $61.60.

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Truist Financial cut their price objective on Mplx from $67.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Mplx from $64.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 16th. Barclays upped their price objective on Mplx from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Mplx from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Mplx from a “buy (a)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Mplx

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Bridges Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Mplx by 53.2% during the third quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. now owns 103,351 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $5,162,000 after purchasing an additional 35,869 shares in the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Mplx during the third quarter worth $2,698,000. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY grew its stake in shares of Mplx by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 2,315,921 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $123,601,000 after purchasing an additional 57,247 shares in the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Mplx by 1.2% during the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 26,409,654 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,319,162,000 after purchasing an additional 325,451 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Texas Yale Capital Corp. grew its stake in shares of Mplx by 8.9% during the third quarter. Texas Yale Capital Corp. now owns 299,845 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $14,977,000 after purchasing an additional 24,405 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Mplx Stock Down 1.2%

Mplx stock opened at $54.85 on Friday. Mplx has a twelve month low of $47.80 and a twelve month high of $59.98. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $56.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $55.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.87, a P/E/G ratio of 5.30 and a beta of 0.49.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by ($0.15). Mplx had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 36.38%.The company had revenue of $2.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.09 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.10 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Mplx will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

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 dividend of $1.0765 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 8th. This represents a $4.31 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.9%. Mplx’s payout ratio is presently 93.29%.

About Mplx

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.