Parkside Financial Bank & Trust Trims Stake in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Parkside Financial Bank & Trust reduced its position in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 1.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 28,253 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 389 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s holdings in Mplx were worth $1,352,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MPLX. ING Groep NV raised its stake 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 acquiring an additional 2,725,000 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC increased its position in Mplx by 5,070.0% during the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 977,794 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $46,797,000 after purchasing an additional 958,881 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its position in Mplx by 387.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 823,467 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $36,611,000 after purchasing an additional 654,500 shares during the period. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. increased its position in Mplx by 368.0% during the 4th quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 188,057 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $9,000,000 after purchasing an additional 147,872 shares during the period. Finally, Walnut Private Equity Partners LLC increased its position in Mplx by 479.6% during the 4th quarter. Walnut Private Equity Partners LLC now owns 153,600 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $7,351,000 after purchasing an additional 127,100 shares during the period. 24.25% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James upped their price target on Mplx from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Mplx from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group increased their price target on Mplx from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. StockNews.com raised Mplx from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Mplx from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.11.

Mplx Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of MPLX opened at $52.32 on Friday. Mplx Lp has a twelve month low of $38.44 and a twelve month high of $54.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $53.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $51.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $47.17.

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

Mplx Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.9565 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $3.83 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.31%. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio 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.