Barnett & Company Inc. Sells 500 Shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Barnett & Company Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 1.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 43,187 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 500 shares during the period. Mplx accounts for about 1.4% of Barnett & Company Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest position. Barnett & Company Inc.’s holdings in Mplx were worth $2,067,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MPLX. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. lifted its stake in Mplx by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 1,933,486 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $85,963,000 after purchasing an additional 90,793 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its holdings in shares of Mplx by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,568,200 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $75,054,000 after purchasing an additional 17,900 shares during the last quarter. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT lifted its position in shares of Mplx by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT now owns 1,506,962 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $72,123,000 after buying an additional 8,166 shares in the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp boosted its stake in Mplx by 5.3% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 1,276,828 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $56,768,000 after buying an additional 64,714 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. grew its holdings in Mplx by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,144,404 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $50,880,000 after buying an additional 33,772 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on MPLX. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Mplx from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Mplx from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 14th. Raymond James increased their price target on shares of Mplx from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com cut Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, March 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Mplx from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Mplx currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.00.

Mplx Price Performance

Shares of MPLX stock opened at $53.68 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $52.71 and a 200 day moving average price of $48.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $54.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.99. Mplx Lp has a 52-week low of $39.56 and a 52-week high of $54.87.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The pipeline company reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by $0.03. Mplx had a net margin of 36.18% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The business had revenue of $3.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.10 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a dividend of $0.9565 per share. This represents a $3.83 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 90.74%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mplx

In other news, VP Shawn M. Lyon purchased 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $52.75 per share, for a total transaction of $211,000.00. Following the acquisition, the vice president now owns 25,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,334,522.25. This represents a 18.78 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

About Mplx

MPLX LP engages in the operation of midstream energy infrastructure and logistics assets, and distribution fuels services. It operates through the Logistics and Storage (L&S) and Gathering and Processing (G&P) segments. The Logistics and Storage segment transports, stores, distributes, and markets crude oil, asphalt, refined petroleum products, and water.