Wedbush Securities Inc. Acquires 11,319 Shares of Mplx Lp $MPLX

Wedbush Securities Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 141.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 19,324 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,319 shares during the quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc.’s holdings in Mplx were worth $965,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Caprock Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Mplx during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,698,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Mplx by 16.2% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 149,367 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $7,461,000 after buying an additional 20,777 shares in the last quarter. Navellier & Associates Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Mplx by 10.8% in the third quarter. Navellier & Associates Inc. now owns 9,801 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $490,000 after buying an additional 954 shares during the period. Integrity Financial Corp WA acquired a new stake in Mplx during the third quarter worth approximately $272,000. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC increased its stake in Mplx by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 31,083 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,553,000 after acquiring an additional 1,485 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Mplx Stock Performance

Mplx stock opened at $56.81 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66. The stock has a market cap of $57.78 billion, a PE ratio of 11.79, a P/E/G ratio of 5.10 and a beta of 0.57. Mplx Lp has a 12-month low of $44.60 and a 12-month high of $57.15. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $54.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $52.35.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 $3.10 billion for 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 34.56%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.07 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 9th will be paid a dividend of $1.0765 per share. This represents a $4.31 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 9th. Mplx’s payout ratio is presently 89.42%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on MPLX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $57.00 target price on shares of Mplx in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Zacks Research raised Mplx from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (a-)” rating on shares of Mplx in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Mplx from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Mplx from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. One 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $58.29.

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.