12,494 Shares in Mplx Lp $MPLX Purchased by Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI bought a new position in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 12,494 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $644,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of MPLX. Private Wealth Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Mplx during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. EQ Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Mplx during the 2nd quarter worth $31,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in Mplx by 509.0% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 609 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 509 shares during the period. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH bought a new stake in Mplx in the second quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Mplx in the first quarter valued at $44,000. 24.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Mplx Stock Performance

MPLX stock opened at $52.86 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $50.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $50.73. The company has a market capitalization of $53.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.20 and a beta of 0.71. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66. Mplx Lp has a fifty-two week low of $44.60 and a fifty-two week high of $54.87.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The pipeline company reported $1.52 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.45. The company had revenue of $2.95 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.16 billion. Mplx had a net margin of 37.61% and a return on equity of 34.14%. Sell-side analysts predict that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 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 14th. Investors of record on Friday, November 7th were issued a dividend of $1.0765 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 7th. This is a positive change from Mplx’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.96. This represents a $4.31 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.1%. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio is presently 91.31%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Zacks Research raised shares of Mplx from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Mplx from $60.00 to $59.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Mplx from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Mplx from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Mplx from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $58.67.

About Mplx

MPLX LP engages in the operation of midstream energy infrastructure and logistics assets, and distribution fuels services. It operates through the Crude Oil and Products Logistics and Natural Gas and NGL Services segments. The Crude Oil and Products Logistics segment transports, stores, distributes, and markets crude oil, asphalt, refined petroleum products, and water.