D.A. Davidson & CO. Increases Stock Position in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its position in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 9.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 27,862 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,462 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Mplx were worth $1,333,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MPLX. ING Groep NV raised its position in Mplx by 69.8% in the third quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 6,628,400 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $294,699,000 after acquiring an additional 2,725,000 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC raised its position in Mplx by 5,070.0% in the fourth quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 977,794 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $46,797,000 after acquiring an additional 958,881 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its position in Mplx by 387.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 823,467 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $36,611,000 after acquiring an additional 654,500 shares during the period. Walnut Private Equity Partners LLC raised its position in Mplx by 479.6% in the fourth quarter. Walnut Private Equity Partners LLC now owns 153,600 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $7,351,000 after acquiring an additional 127,100 shares during the period. Finally, Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC raised its position in Mplx by 325.9% in the fourth quarter. Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC now owns 123,663 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $5,919,000 after acquiring an additional 94,628 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Mplx Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MPLX opened at $53.40 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $50.54 and a 200 day moving average of $46.86. The stock has a market cap of $54.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.42. Mplx Lp has a 12 month low of $38.44 and a 12 month high of $54.74. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The pipeline company reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.04 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $3.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.07 billion. Mplx had a net margin of 36.18% and a return on equity of 31.94%. Mplx’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.10 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a $0.9565 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $3.83 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.16%. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio is presently 90.74%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on MPLX. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Mplx from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Mplx from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Mplx from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Mplx from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Mplx from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.11.

Mplx Company Profile

MPLX LP engages in the operation of midstream energy infrastructure and logistics assets, and distribution fuels services. It operates through the Logistics and Storage (L&S) and Gathering and Processing (G&P) segments. The Logistics and Storage segment transports, stores, distributes, and markets crude oil, asphalt, refined petroleum products, and water.