NBW Capital LLC Raises Stake in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

NBW Capital LLC increased its holdings in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 28.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 271,861 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 61,019 shares during the period. Mplx comprises approximately 2.2% of NBW Capital LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. NBW Capital LLC’s holdings in Mplx were worth $9,983,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MPLX. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 104,751.1% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 69,772,138 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,291,317,000 after buying an additional 69,705,594 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Mplx by 440.5% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,649,301 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $200,946,000 after purchasing an additional 4,604,066 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Mplx by 18.9% in the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 28,771,793 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,023,413,000 after purchasing an additional 4,579,152 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Mplx by 519.6% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,298,506 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $148,083,000 after purchasing an additional 3,604,755 shares during the period. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in Mplx by 18.3% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 6,309,208 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $224,419,000 after buying an additional 976,033 shares during the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on MPLX. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Mplx from $46.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. StockNews.com raised shares of Mplx from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Mplx from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Barclays lifted their target price on Mplx from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Mplx from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $43.86.

Mplx Stock Performance

Shares of Mplx stock traded up $0.20 during trading on Thursday, hitting $40.19. 813,878 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,165,241. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.48 and a beta of 1.35. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $40.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.71. Mplx Lp has a 52-week low of $33.12 and a 52-week high of $42.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.07.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The pipeline company reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.15. Mplx had a return on equity of 31.85% and a net margin of 34.82%. The firm had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.88 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.78 earnings per share. Mplx’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Mplx Lp will post 4.11 EPS for the current year.

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 5th were issued a dividend of $0.85 per share. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.46%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 2nd. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 89.24%.

Mplx Company Profile

MPLX LP owns and operates midstream energy infrastructure and logistics assets primarily in the United States. It operates in two segments, Logistics and Storage, and Gathering and Processing. The company is involved in the gathering, processing, and transportation of natural gas; gathering, transportation, fractionation, storage, and marketing of natural gas liquids; gathering, storage, transportation, and distribution of crude oil and refined products, as well as other hydrocarbon-based products and renewables; and sale of residue gas and condensate.