Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Purchases 9,143 Shares of Mplx Lp $MPLX

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System increased its holdings in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 2.7% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 349,518 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 9,143 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Mplx were worth $17,458,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of Mplx by 8.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 9,873,619 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $508,590,000 after purchasing an additional 757,569 shares during the last quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 5,611,824 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $280,311,000 after buying an additional 120,216 shares in the last quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 4.5% in the 2nd quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 5,541,795 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $285,458,000 after buying an additional 236,932 shares in the last quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY grew its position in shares of Mplx by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 2,258,674 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $112,821,000 after buying an additional 18,538 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Westwood Holdings Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Mplx by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 2,205,946 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $113,628,000 after acquiring an additional 33,126 shares in the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MPLX has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Mplx from $60.00 to $59.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Barclays raised their price target on Mplx from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 17th. Raymond James Financial cut shares of Mplx from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Mplx from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (a-)” rating on shares of Mplx in a research report on Monday, December 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.00.

Mplx Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MPLX opened at $56.57 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $57.54 billion, a PE ratio of 11.99 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.31. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $53.88 and its 200 day moving average price is $51.67. Mplx Lp has a 1 year low of $44.60 and a 1 year high of $56.71.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The pipeline company reported $1.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.45. Mplx had a net margin of 37.61% and a return on equity of 34.14%. The business had revenue of $2.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.16 billion. On average, research analysts predict that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Mplx Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, November 7th were paid a $1.0765 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 7th. This represents a $4.31 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.6%. This is an increase from Mplx’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.96. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio is 91.31%.

Mplx Profile

MPLX LP (NYSE: MPLX) is a midstream master limited partnership that owns, operates and develops energy infrastructure primarily across the United States. The company provides a range of midstream services including the gathering, transportation, storage and distribution of crude oil, refined petroleum products, natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs). MPLX also operates processing and fractionation facilities and supplies logistics services that connect producers, refiners and end-use markets.

The partnership’s asset base includes pipelines, storage terminals, rail and marine facilities, natural gas processing plants and NGL fractionators.