Independent Advisor Alliance Reduces Position in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Independent Advisor Alliance reduced its position in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 5.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 65,952 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 3,533 shares during the quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance’s holdings in Mplx were worth $3,156,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cedar Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Mplx in the third quarter valued at about $51,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in Mplx by 56.3% in the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,135 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $54,000 after buying an additional 409 shares during the last quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Mplx in the fourth quarter valued at about $98,000. Allworth Financial LP increased its holdings in Mplx by 25.1% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,576 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $134,000 after buying an additional 517 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Archford Capital Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Mplx in the fourth quarter valued at about $200,000. 24.25% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on MPLX shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on Mplx from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Mplx from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. UBS Group upped their target price on Mplx from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Raymond James upped their target price on Mplx from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Mplx from $56.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $53.10.

Insider Transactions at Mplx

In other Mplx news, VP Shawn M. Lyon bought 4,000 shares of Mplx stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The stock was bought at an average price of $52.75 per share, for a total transaction of $211,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the vice president now directly owns 25,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,334,522.25. This trade represents a 18.78 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Mplx Stock Performance

MPLX opened at $53.08 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $54.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Mplx Lp has a 1-year low of $39.56 and a 1-year high of $54.79. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $51.95 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $47.91.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The pipeline company reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $3.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.07 billion. Mplx had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 36.18%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.10 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal 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 dividend of $0.9565 per share. This represents a $3.83 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio is presently 90.74%.

About Mplx

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.