Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Friday.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Mplx from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Mplx from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Mplx in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $43.00 price target for the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Mplx from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Mplx from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $49.44.

Mplx Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of MPLX stock opened at $49.09 on Friday. Mplx has a 12 month low of $35.51 and a 12 month high of $49.88. The stock has a market cap of $50.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $45.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $43.01.

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

Mplx Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th were given a dividend of $0.9565 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $3.83 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.79%. This is a positive change from Mplx’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 90.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mplx

In other Mplx news, VP Carl Kristopher Hagedorn sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.24, for a total transaction of $188,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 14,750 shares in the company, valued at $696,790. This trade 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 through this link.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Mplx

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its position in Mplx by 23.2% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 14,764 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $656,000 after purchasing an additional 2,785 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Mplx by 9.3% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 21,530 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $957,000 after acquiring an additional 1,832 shares during the period. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group raised its stake in shares of Mplx by 2.1% in the third quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 24,201 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,076,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Mplx by 5.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,488 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $689,000 after acquiring an additional 785 shares during the period. Finally, M&T Bank Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Mplx in the third quarter valued at $2,023,000. Institutional investors own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

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.