Brokerages Set Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) Target Price at $61.60

Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) has been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the thirteen brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $61.60.

A number of research firms recently issued reports on MPLX. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Mplx from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Mplx from a “buy (a)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Mplx from $62.00 to $60.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $60.00 target price on shares of Mplx in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Mplx from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 7th.

Institutional Trading of Mplx

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Mplx by 23.7% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,763,110 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $307,577,000 after acquiring an additional 1,104,510 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 8.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 9,873,619 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $508,590,000 after acquiring an additional 757,569 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 45.5% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,151,905 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $65,739,000 after acquiring an additional 360,427 shares during the last quarter. Merewether Investment Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Mplx in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $16,988,000. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Mplx by 98.9% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 559,598 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $29,698,000 after purchasing an additional 278,263 shares during the period. 24.25% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Mplx Trading Down 1.0%

NYSE MPLX opened at $56.54 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $56.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $56.30. Mplx has a 12-month low of $47.80 and a 12-month high of $59.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.71. The stock has a market cap of $57.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.24, a P/E/G ratio of 5.49 and a beta of 0.47.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.05 by ($0.15). The firm had revenue of $2.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.09 billion. Mplx had a net margin of 36.38% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.10 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Mplx will post 4.21 earnings per share for the current year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 8th were paid a $1.0765 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 8th. This represents a $4.31 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.6%. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio is 93.29%.

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.