Cohen & Steers Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Mplx Lp $MPLX

Cohen & Steers Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 27.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 880,593 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 189,306 shares during the quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. owned 0.09% of Mplx worth $46,997,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Caprock Group LLC purchased a new position in Mplx during the 3rd quarter valued at $2,698,000. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY boosted its holdings in Mplx by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 2,315,921 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $123,601,000 after acquiring an additional 57,247 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Mplx by 126.0% during the 4th quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 43,234 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,307,000 after acquiring an additional 24,107 shares during the period. Texas Yale Capital Corp. boosted its holdings in Mplx by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Texas Yale Capital Corp. now owns 299,845 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $14,977,000 after acquiring an additional 24,405 shares during the period. Finally, Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH boosted its holdings in Mplx by 286.1% during the 4th quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 76,557 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $4,086,000 after acquiring an additional 56,729 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on MPLX shares. Barclays lifted their target price on Mplx from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Mplx from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Weiss Ratings lowered Mplx from a “buy (a)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Wall Street Zen lowered Mplx from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 11th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Mplx from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.60.

Mplx Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of NYSE MPLX opened at $56.65 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $57.48 billion, a PE ratio of 12.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.42 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.71. Mplx Lp has a twelve month low of $47.80 and a twelve month high of $59.98. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $55.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $55.82.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 company’s revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.10 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Mplx Lp will post 4.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Dividend Announcement

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

Mplx 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.