Epoch Investment Partners Inc. Buys 161,901 Shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Epoch Investment Partners Inc. grew its stake in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 13.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,378,594 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 161,901 shares during the period. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. owned 0.14% of Mplx worth $65,980,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Mplx by 141.1% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,985,181 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $95,011,000 after acquiring an additional 1,161,714 shares during the period. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. raised its position in shares of Mplx by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 1,971,331 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $94,348,000 after buying an additional 37,845 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,568,200 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $75,054,000 after buying an additional 17,900 shares in the last quarter. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT grew its stake 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 valued at $72,123,000 after acquiring an additional 8,166 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC increased its holdings in Mplx by 5,070.0% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 977,794 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $46,797,000 after acquiring an additional 958,881 shares during the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Mplx news, VP Shawn M. Lyon purchased 4,000 shares of Mplx stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $52.75 per share, for a total transaction of $211,000.00. Following the acquisition, the vice president now owns 25,299 shares in the company, valued at $1,334,522.25. This trade represents a 18.78 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Mplx Stock Performance

Shares of Mplx stock opened at $50.49 on Friday. Mplx Lp has a 52 week low of $39.84 and a 52 week high of $54.87. The company has a market capitalization of $51.63 billion, a PE ratio of 11.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.11. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $52.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $49.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40.

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

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.9565 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $3.83 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.58%. Mplx’s payout ratio is 90.74%.

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.