Milestone Asset Management LLC Buys New Position in Mplx Lp $MPLX

Milestone Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 37,432 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,998,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MPLX. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new position in Mplx in the 3rd quarter valued at about $134,319,000. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in Mplx by 8.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 9,873,619 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $508,590,000 after purchasing an additional 757,569 shares during the last quarter. Merewether Investment Management LP acquired a new position in Mplx in the 2nd quarter valued at about $16,988,000. Alps Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Mplx by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 26,409,654 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,319,162,000 after purchasing an additional 325,451 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its stake in Mplx by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 7,060,024 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $352,648,000 after purchasing an additional 300,321 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Mplx Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of NYSE:MPLX opened at $55.72 on Thursday. 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 Lp has a 1 year low of $47.80 and a 1 year high of $59.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $56.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.56, a PEG ratio of 5.13 and a beta of 0.56. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $57.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $54.63.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The pipeline company reported $1.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.07. Mplx had a return on equity of 34.37% and a net margin of 37.79%.The business had revenue of $5.99 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.23 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.07 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Mplx Lp will post 4.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 9th were issued a dividend of $1.0765 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 9th. This represents a $4.31 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.7%. Mplx’s payout ratio is presently 89.42%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MPLX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen cut Mplx from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 11th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Mplx from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Mplx from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Mplx from $55.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Mplx from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $62.00.

Mplx Profile

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.