Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) Shares Bought by Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its position in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 16.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 20,120 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,860 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Mplx were worth $963,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC grew its stake in Mplx by 5,070.0% during the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 977,794 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $46,797,000 after purchasing an additional 958,881 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Mplx during the fourth quarter worth approximately $41,917,000. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Mplx by 387.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 823,467 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $36,611,000 after buying an additional 654,500 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. raised its holdings in Mplx by 368.0% in the fourth quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 188,057 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $9,000,000 after acquiring an additional 147,872 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Walnut Private Equity Partners LLC boosted its stake in Mplx by 479.6% during the 4th quarter. Walnut Private Equity Partners LLC now owns 153,600 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $7,351,000 after acquiring an additional 127,100 shares during the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MPLX. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Mplx from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Raymond James upped their price objective on Mplx from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Mplx from $56.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Mplx from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Mplx from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Mplx currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $54.00.

Mplx Stock Up 0.6 %

MPLX stock opened at $54.02 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $53.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $48.89. The stock has a market cap of $55.23 billion, a PE ratio of 12.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.40. Mplx Lp has a fifty-two week low of $39.56 and a fifty-two week high of $54.87.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The pipeline company reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by $0.03. Mplx had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 36.18%. The company had revenue of $3.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.07 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.10 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a $0.9565 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $3.83 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.08%. Mplx’s payout ratio is 90.74%.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP Shawn M. Lyon acquired 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $52.75 per share, for a total transaction of $211,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the vice president now directly owns 25,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,334,522.25. The trade was a 18.78 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Mplx Profile

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.