Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) Price Target Raised to $49.00

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) had its target price boosted by analysts at UBS Group from $46.00 to $49.00 in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the pipeline company’s stock. UBS Group’s price target points to a potential upside of 20.57% from the company’s current price.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on MPLX. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Mplx from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Mplx from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Mplx from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Mplx from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.86.

Mplx Price Performance

MPLX stock opened at $40.64 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $40.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $37.62. The company has a market capitalization of $41.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.67 and a beta of 1.35. Mplx has a 52-week low of $33.12 and a 52-week high of $42.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.07.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The pipeline company reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.15. Mplx had a net margin of 34.82% and a return on equity of 31.85%. The firm had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.88 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.78 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Mplx will post 4 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Mplx

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Mplx by 104,751.1% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 69,772,138 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,291,317,000 after buying an additional 69,705,594 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Mplx by 18.9% during the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 28,771,793 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,023,413,000 after buying an additional 4,579,152 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Mplx by 4.0% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,917,505 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $744,036,000 after buying an additional 809,273 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Mplx by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 6,463,737 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $237,348,000 after buying an additional 154,529 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS Group AG grew its holdings in shares of Mplx by 12.2% during the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 5,869,436 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $208,776,000 after buying an additional 639,199 shares during the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Mplx

MPLX LP owns and operates midstream energy infrastructure and logistics assets primarily in the United States. It operates in two segments, Logistics and Storage, and Gathering and Processing. The company is involved in the gathering, processing, and transportation of natural gas; gathering, transportation, fractionation, storage, and marketing of natural gas liquids; gathering, storage, transportation, and distribution of crude oil and refined products, as well as other hydrocarbon-based products and renewables; and sale of residue gas and condensate.