Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) Hits New 12-Month High – Here’s What Happened

Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $59.54 and last traded at $58.7540, with a volume of 158569 shares. The stock had previously closed at $58.94.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MPLX has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (a-)” rating on shares of Mplx in a report on Monday, December 29th. Barclays boosted their target price on Mplx from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Mplx from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Mplx from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of Mplx from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $58.29.

Mplx Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $60.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.26, a P/E/G ratio of 5.29 and a beta of 0.56. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $55.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $52.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.31.

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

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 9th were paid a $1.0765 dividend. This represents a $4.31 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 9th. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 89.42%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Mplx

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MPLX. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Mplx in the third quarter worth $134,319,000. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of Mplx by 23.7% in the fourth 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 during the period. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in shares of Mplx by 8.3% in 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. Natixis increased its holdings in Mplx by 1,585.3% in the 2nd 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. Finally, Merewether Investment Management LP acquired a new stake in Mplx during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $16,988,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

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.