Blueprint Investment Partners LLC Acquires 92,429 Shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Blueprint Investment Partners LLC lifted its stake in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 134.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 161,356 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 92,429 shares during the period. Mplx makes up approximately 1.2% of Blueprint Investment Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest position. Blueprint Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Mplx were worth $7,723,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. PFG Investments LLC increased its holdings in Mplx by 38.5% in the 4th quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 38,506 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,843,000 after buying an additional 10,705 shares during the period. Walnut Private Equity Partners LLC raised its position in Mplx by 479.6% during the fourth quarter. Walnut Private Equity Partners LLC now owns 153,600 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $7,351,000 after purchasing an additional 127,100 shares in the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC lifted its stake in Mplx by 387.5% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 23,543 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,047,000 after purchasing an additional 18,714 shares during the last quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA boosted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 149,509 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $6,647,000 after purchasing an additional 10,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Mplx by 9,134.1% in the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 11,635 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $557,000 after purchasing an additional 11,509 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on MPLX. Barclays raised their price objective on Mplx from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Mplx from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Mplx from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Mplx from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, March 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Mplx news, VP Shawn M. Lyon bought 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $52.75 per share, with a total value of $211,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the vice president now directly owns 25,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,334,522.25. This trade represents a 18.78 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Mplx Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of MPLX opened at $53.68 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $52.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $48.46. Mplx Lp has a 12 month low of $39.56 and a 12 month high of $54.87. The company has a market capitalization of $54.89 billion, a PE ratio of 12.75, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The pipeline company reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $3.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. Mplx had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 36.18%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.10 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a dividend of $0.9565 per share. This represents a $3.83 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 90.74%.

About Mplx

MPLX LP engages in the operation of midstream energy infrastructure and logistics assets, and distribution fuels services. It operates through the Logistics and Storage (L&S) and Gathering and Processing (G&P) segments. The Logistics and Storage segment transports, stores, distributes, and markets crude oil, asphalt, refined petroleum products, and water.