National Bank of Canada FI Makes New Investment in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

National Bank of Canada FI purchased a new stake in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 6,500 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $311,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. PFG Investments LLC increased its stake in Mplx by 38.5% in the fourth quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 38,506 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,843,000 after purchasing an additional 10,705 shares in the last quarter. Walnut Private Equity Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Mplx by 479.6% in 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 buying an additional 127,100 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC increased its position in shares of Mplx by 387.5% in the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 23,543 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,047,000 after buying an additional 18,714 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Mplx by 9,134.1% during the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 11,635 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $557,000 after buying an additional 11,509 shares during the period. Finally, CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT lifted its holdings in Mplx by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT now owns 1,506,962 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $72,123,000 after acquiring an additional 8,166 shares in the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Shawn M. Lyon acquired 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $52.75 per share, for a total transaction of $211,000.00. Following 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 ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Mplx Trading Down 1.9 %

Mplx stock opened at $47.36 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $52.60 and a 200-day moving average of $49.25. The company has a market cap of $48.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.11. Mplx Lp has a one year low of $39.56 and a one year high of $54.87.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last posted 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 firm had revenue of $3.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.07 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.10 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.9565 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $3.83 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.08%. Mplx’s payout ratio is 90.74%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Mplx Company 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.