Empirical Finance LLC Buys 100,927 Shares of Mplx Lp $MPLX

Empirical Finance LLC grew its position in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 86.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 217,494 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 100,927 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Mplx were worth $12,412,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MPLX. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its position in Mplx by 4.1% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 24,049 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,287,000 after acquiring an additional 939 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Mplx by 6.6% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,557 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $853,000 after buying an additional 1,021 shares during the period. Guggenheim Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Mplx by 5.4% in the second quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 19,139 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $986,000 after buying an additional 972 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Mplx by 12.5% during the 2nd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 53,113 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,736,000 after buying an additional 5,916 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Glenview Trust co lifted its position in shares of Mplx by 62.5% during the 2nd quarter. Glenview Trust co now owns 6,500 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $335,000 after buying an additional 2,500 shares in the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MPLX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Mplx in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Wall Street Zen cut Mplx from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 11th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Mplx from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings cut Mplx from a “buy (a)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Mplx from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Mplx currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.60.

Mplx Stock Up 2.1%

Shares of MPLX opened at $58.74 on Friday. Mplx Lp has a 1 year low of $47.80 and a 1 year high of $59.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.71, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $56.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $56.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $59.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.51 and a beta of 0.47.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by ($0.15). The business had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.09 billion. Mplx had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 36.38%.The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.10 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Mplx Lp will post 4.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 8th were paid a dividend of $1.0765 per share. This represents a $4.31 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 8th. Mplx’s payout ratio is presently 93.29%.

About Mplx

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.