Arete Wealth Advisors LLC Has $472,000 Stock Position in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Arete Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 36.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,852 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,640 shares during the quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Mplx were worth $472,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MPLX. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of Mplx in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Mplx by 56.3% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR bought a new stake in Mplx during the fourth quarter worth $56,000. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Mplx during the 4th quarter worth $98,000. Finally, Allworth Financial LP boosted its stake in shares of Mplx by 25.1% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,576 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $134,000 after purchasing an additional 517 shares in the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MPLX has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Mplx from $56.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Mplx from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com cut Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, March 2nd. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Mplx from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Mplx from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $54.00.

Mplx Price Performance

Mplx stock opened at $48.53 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. The stock has a market cap of $49.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.11. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $53.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $49.16. Mplx Lp has a 52 week low of $39.56 and a 52 week high of $54.87.

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

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.9565 dividend. This represents a $3.83 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 90.74%.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Shawn M. Lyon acquired 4,000 shares of Mplx stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The stock was bought at an average price of $52.75 per share, with a total value of $211,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the vice president now owns 25,299 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,334,522.25. The trade was a 18.78 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

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.