Diversified Trust Co. Acquires New Position in Mplx Lp $MPLX

Diversified Trust Co. bought a new position in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 12,478 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $666,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MPLX. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Mplx by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 5,611,824 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $280,311,000 after purchasing an additional 120,216 shares during the period. Caprock Group LLC purchased a new position in Mplx in the third quarter valued at approximately $2,698,000. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH acquired a new position in Mplx during the third quarter valued at approximately $990,000. Bridges Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Mplx by 53.2% during the third quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. now owns 103,351 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $5,162,000 after buying an additional 35,869 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Natixis grew its stake in Mplx by 1,585.3% during the second quarter. Natixis now owns 403,758 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $20,798,000 after buying an additional 379,800 shares during the period. 24.25% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Mplx Stock Performance

Mplx stock opened at $58.14 on Friday. Mplx Lp has a 12-month low of $44.60 and a 12-month high of $59.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 1.18. The company has a market capitalization of $59.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.40 and a beta of 0.56. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $57.28 and its 200 day moving average price is $53.93.

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

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 17th. Investors of record on Monday, February 9th were issued a $1.0765 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 9th. This represents a $4.31 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.4%. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio is currently 89.42%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Raymond James Financial lowered shares of Mplx from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Mplx from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Mplx from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (a-)” rating on shares of Mplx in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Mplx from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Mplx has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $61.56.

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.