Kovack Advisors Inc. Sells 1,837 Shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Kovack Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 11.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,677 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 1,837 shares during the period. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Mplx were worth $655,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. ING Groep NV grew its position in Mplx by 69.8% during the 3rd quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 6,628,400 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $294,699,000 after purchasing an additional 2,725,000 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Mplx by 0.8% in the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 5,735,562 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $255,003,000 after buying an additional 45,271 shares in the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. grew its holdings in shares of Mplx by 4.9% during the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 1,933,486 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $85,963,000 after buying an additional 90,793 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its holdings in shares of Mplx by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,568,200 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $75,054,000 after buying an additional 17,900 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT raised its holdings in Mplx by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT now owns 1,506,962 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $72,123,000 after acquiring an additional 8,166 shares during the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on MPLX shares. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Mplx from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. StockNews.com raised Mplx from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Mplx from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of Mplx from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Mplx from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $52.11.

Mplx Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of MPLX stock opened at $52.32 on Friday. 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 Lp has a 12 month low of $38.44 and a 12 month high of $54.74. The stock has a market cap of $53.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $51.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $47.17.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The pipeline company reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.04 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $3.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. Mplx had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 36.18%. Mplx’s revenue was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.10 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a $0.9565 dividend. This represents a $3.83 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 90.74%.

Mplx 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.