Barclays Boosts Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) Price Target to $49.00

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) had its target price raised by Barclays from $45.00 to $49.00 in a research report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the pipeline company’s stock.

MPLX has been the subject of several other reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Mplx from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an outperform rating and issued a $47.00 target price on shares of Mplx in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. StockNews.com lowered Mplx from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Mplx from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Buy and an average price target of $47.88.

Mplx Trading Up 0.8 %

NYSE:MPLX opened at $44.32 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $45.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.37. Mplx has a one year low of $35.06 and a one year high of $45.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.99. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.10.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The pipeline company reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $3.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.96 billion. Mplx had a return on equity of 32.68% and a net margin of 35.95%. The business’s revenue was up 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.91 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Mplx will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were given a $0.85 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.67%. Mplx’s payout ratio is 87.63%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MPLX. Creative Planning lifted its stake in shares of Mplx by 45.4% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 51,508 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,290,000 after purchasing an additional 16,076 shares during the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Mplx in the third quarter worth about $240,000. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Mplx by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 7,197 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $320,000 after acquiring an additional 507 shares in the last quarter. Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Mplx during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,291,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its stake in shares of Mplx by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 450,487 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $20,029,000 after acquiring an additional 30,290 shares in the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.