Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. Boosts Position in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. grew its stake in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 2.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,825,905 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 353,324 shares during the period. Mplx accounts for 8.4% of Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C.’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. owned 1.46% of Mplx worth $631,435,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MPLX. Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in Mplx during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $67,253,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in shares of Mplx by 53.9% during the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 1,826,484 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $75,909,000 after buying an additional 639,851 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC boosted its holdings in Mplx by 23.4% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 3,028,327 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $111,200,000 after buying an additional 574,737 shares during the period. ING Groep NV increased its stake in Mplx by 21.2% in the 4th quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 2,740,500 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $100,631,000 after buying an additional 480,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH raised its holdings in Mplx by 170.6% during the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 637,100 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $23,394,000 after acquiring an additional 401,700 shares during the period. 24.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Mplx from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of Mplx from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Sunday, August 11th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $47.00 target price on shares of Mplx in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Mplx from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Mplx presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.33.

Mplx Price Performance

MPLX stock opened at $42.62 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.37. Mplx Lp has a 52 week low of $34.52 and a 52 week high of $43.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.37.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The pipeline company reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.17. Mplx had a return on equity of 32.68% and a net margin of 35.95%. The company had revenue of $3.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.96 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.91 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Mplx Lp will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were given a dividend of $0.85 per share. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio is currently 87.63%.

Mplx Profile

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.