Mplx Lp $MPLX Shares Acquired by Epoch Investment Partners Inc.

Epoch Investment Partners Inc. lifted its position in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 10.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,156,589 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 112,738 shares during the quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc.’s holdings in Mplx were worth $61,727,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Arax Advisory Partners lifted its position in shares of Mplx by 28.0% during the fourth quarter. Arax Advisory Partners now owns 4,129 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $220,000 after purchasing an additional 902 shares in the last quarter. ArchPoint Investors lifted its position in shares of Mplx by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. ArchPoint Investors now owns 62,977 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,361,000 after purchasing an additional 757 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its position in shares of Mplx by 13.6% during the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 99,305 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $5,300,000 after purchasing an additional 11,883 shares in the last quarter. 1 North Wealth Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Mplx during the fourth quarter worth $56,000. Finally, Aptus Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Mplx by 21.4% during the fourth quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 5,240 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $280,000 after purchasing an additional 925 shares in the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Mplx Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of NYSE:MPLX opened at $56.65 on Monday. 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 company has a fifty day simple moving average of $55.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $55.84. The firm has a market cap of $57.48 billion, a PE ratio of 12.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.46 and a beta of 0.48. Mplx Lp has a 12-month low of $47.80 and a 12-month high of $59.98.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by ($0.15). The company had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.09 billion. Mplx had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 36.38%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.10 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Mplx Lp will post 4.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.6%. Mplx’s payout ratio is presently 93.29%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on MPLX. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Mplx from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Mplx from $55.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Mplx from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Mplx from a “buy (a)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Mplx from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.60.

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.