Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, four have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $58.2857.

MPLX has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup upped 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. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Mplx from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of Mplx from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (a-)” rating on shares of Mplx in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Mplx from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 21st.

Institutional Trading of Mplx

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MPLX. Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in Mplx in the second quarter worth about $26,000. Solstein Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Mplx during the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. FSC Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Mplx in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Operose Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 216.2% in the second quarter. Operose Advisors LLC now owns 585 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EQ Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Mplx in the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Mplx Price Performance

Shares of MPLX opened at $56.70 on Thursday. Mplx has a twelve month low of $44.60 and a twelve month high of $58.27. The company has a market capitalization of $57.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.15 and a beta of 0.57. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $54.84 and a 200 day moving average of $52.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 3rd. The pipeline company reported $1.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.23 billion. Mplx had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 37.79%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.07 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Mplx will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. This represents a $4.31 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 9th. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio 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.