Clearbridge Investments LLC Boosts Stake in Mplx Lp $MPLX

Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 7.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,343,689 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 172,000 shares during the quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC’s holdings in Mplx were worth $125,083,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Lido Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Mplx by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 63,404 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,226,000 after buying an additional 1,416 shares in the last quarter. Resolute Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Mplx during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,295,000. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp lifted its holdings in Mplx by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 9,068 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $484,000 after buying an additional 289 shares in the last quarter. Texas Yale Capital Corp. lifted its holdings in Mplx by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Texas Yale Capital Corp. now owns 311,445 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $16,622,000 after buying an additional 11,600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its holdings in Mplx by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 1,106,127 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $59,034,000 after buying an additional 44,125 shares in the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on MPLX shares. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Mplx from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Mplx from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Mplx from $64.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Mplx from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Mplx from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $61.60.

Mplx Price Performance

Shares of MPLX opened at $56.53 on Monday. Mplx Lp has a twelve month low of $47.80 and a twelve month high of $59.98. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $55.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $57.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.24, a PEG ratio of 5.42 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.71.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by ($0.15). Mplx had a net margin of 36.38% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The firm had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.10 earnings per share. Mplx’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Mplx Lp will post 4.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 8th were issued a $1.0765 dividend. This represents a $4.31 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.6%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 8th. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 93.29%.

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.