Wall Street Zen Upgrades Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) to “Buy”

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday.

Several other research firms also recently commented on MPLX. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Mplx from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (a-)” rating on shares of Mplx in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Mplx from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Mplx from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.88.

Mplx Price Performance

Shares of MPLX opened at $57.91 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $58.79 billion, a PE ratio of 12.01, a PEG ratio of 5.29 and a beta of 0.56. The company’s 50-day moving average is $56.94 and its 200-day moving average is $53.69. Mplx has a fifty-two week low of $44.60 and a fifty-two week high of $59.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 1.18.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The pipeline company reported $1.17 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $5.99 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.23 billion. Mplx had a net margin of 37.79% and a return on equity of 34.37%. Mplx’s revenue was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.07 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Mplx will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Mplx

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MPLX. Alps Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Mplx by 1.2% in the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 26,409,654 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,319,162,000 after acquiring an additional 325,451 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Mplx by 0.7% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 19,561,938 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $977,119,000 after purchasing an additional 143,361 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Mplx by 8.3% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 9,873,619 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $508,590,000 after purchasing an additional 757,569 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 23.7% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,763,110 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $307,577,000 after purchasing an additional 1,104,510 shares in the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Mplx Company 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.