Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) Hits New 12-Month High After Analyst Upgrade

Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday after Truist Financial raised their price target on the stock from $48.00 to $55.00. Truist Financial currently has a buy rating on the stock. Mplx traded as high as $47.71 and last traded at $47.48, with a volume of 214664 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $47.46.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on MPLX. Barclays lifted their price objective on Mplx from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Mplx from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Mplx from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Mplx from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Mplx from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $49.44.

Institutional Trading of Mplx

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MPLX. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group lifted its position in shares of Mplx by 2.1% in the third quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 24,201 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,076,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Mplx by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,488 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $689,000 after purchasing an additional 785 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp purchased a new stake in Mplx during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $2,023,000. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 4.9% in the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 1,933,486 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $85,963,000 after buying an additional 90,793 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Mplx by 387.5% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 23,543 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,047,000 after acquiring an additional 18,714 shares during the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Mplx Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.99. The company has a market capitalization of $48.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.20, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.37. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $44.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.77.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The pipeline company reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.05 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.09 billion. Mplx had a net margin of 36.77% and a return on equity of 32.70%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.89 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Mplx Lp will post 4.31 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 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th were given a dividend of $0.9565 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This is a positive change from Mplx’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.83 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.05%. Mplx’s payout ratio is 90.33%.

Mplx Company 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.