Brokerages Set Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) Price Target at $61.44

Shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $61.8889.

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Mplx from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 11th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Mplx from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Raymond James Financial cut shares of Mplx from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Mplx from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Mplx from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th.

Institutional Trading of Mplx

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Alps Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 26,409,654 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,319,162,000 after acquiring an additional 325,451 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Mplx by 0.7% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 19,561,938 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $977,119,000 after acquiring an additional 143,361 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in Mplx by 8.3% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 9,873,619 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $508,590,000 after acquiring an additional 757,569 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its position in Mplx by 4.4% in the third quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 7,060,024 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $352,648,000 after purchasing an additional 300,321 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in Mplx by 23.7% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,763,110 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $307,577,000 after purchasing an additional 1,104,510 shares during the period. 24.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Mplx Stock Up 0.8%

Mplx stock opened at $55.21 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $57.34 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $54.43. The firm has a market cap of $56.05 billion, a PE ratio of 11.45, a P/E/G ratio of 5.07 and a beta of 0.56. Mplx has a twelve month low of $47.80 and a twelve month high of $59.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 1.23.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 3rd. The pipeline company reported $1.17 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $5.99 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.23 billion. Mplx had a return on equity of 34.37% and a net margin of 37.79%.The firm’s revenue was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.07 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Mplx will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 9th were paid a $1.0765 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 9th. This represents a $4.31 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.8%. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 89.42%.

About Mplx

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.