Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Saturday.

MPLX has been the topic of several other research reports. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Mplx from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Mplx from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Mplx from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Truist Financial reduced their target price on Mplx from $67.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Finally, Raymond James Financial cut Mplx from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Mplx currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.89.

Mplx Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of MPLX stock opened at $55.93 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $56.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.60, a P/E/G ratio of 5.17 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66. Mplx has a fifty-two week low of $47.80 and a fifty-two week high of $59.98. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $57.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $54.40.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 3rd. The pipeline company reported $1.17 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.07. Mplx had a net margin of 37.79% and a return on equity of 34.37%. The business had revenue of $5.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.23 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.07 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Mplx will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 9th were issued a dividend of $1.0765 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 9th. This represents a $4.31 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.7%. Mplx’s payout ratio is 89.42%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Mplx

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Alps Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Mplx by 1.2% during the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 26,409,654 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,319,162,000 after acquiring an additional 325,451 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Mplx by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 19,561,938 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $977,119,000 after purchasing an additional 143,361 shares during the period. 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 period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 4.4% during the third quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 7,060,024 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $352,648,000 after purchasing an additional 300,321 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 23.7% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,763,110 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $307,577,000 after purchasing an additional 1,104,510 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Mplx Company 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.