Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. Buys Shares of 24,875 Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 24,875 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,106,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. One Charles Private Wealth Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Mplx during the third quarter worth about $1,610,000. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its position in Mplx by 42.5% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 41,028 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,824,000 after buying an additional 12,236 shares during the last quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Mplx by 62.0% in the 3rd quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 11,688 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $520,000 after buying an additional 4,474 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. lifted its position in Mplx by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,144,404 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $50,880,000 after buying an additional 33,772 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cedar Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Mplx in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $51,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MPLX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com downgraded Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Mplx from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Mplx from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Bank of America started coverage on Mplx in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $43.00 price objective for the company. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on Mplx from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $49.44.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mplx

In other news, VP Carl Kristopher Hagedorn sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.24, for a total value of $188,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 14,750 shares in the company, valued at $696,790. This represents a 21.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Mplx Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of MPLX stock opened at $49.50 on Monday. Mplx Lp has a 1-year low of $35.51 and a 1-year high of $49.54. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $45.02 and its 200 day moving average price is $42.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The company has a market cap of $50.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.37.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The pipeline company reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.05 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.09 billion. Mplx had a net margin of 36.77% and a return on equity of 32.70%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.89 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Mplx Lp will post 4.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th were issued a dividend of $0.9565 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $3.83 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.73%. This is a boost from Mplx’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio is presently 90.33%.

About Mplx

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.