Wedbush Securities Inc. Takes Position in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Wedbush Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 7,608 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $364,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. CFO4Life Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Mplx by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. CFO4Life Group LLC now owns 19,200 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $919,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. GraniteShares Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Mplx by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. GraniteShares Advisors LLC now owns 51,441 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,462,000 after acquiring an additional 237 shares in the last quarter. Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Mplx by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 14,489 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $693,000 after acquiring an additional 285 shares in the last quarter. Huntington National Bank grew its holdings in shares of Mplx by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 3,900 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $187,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mutual Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Mplx by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC now owns 12,345 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $627,000 after purchasing an additional 378 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on MPLX. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Mplx from $56.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, March 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Mplx from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Mplx from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Raymond James raised their target price 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $54.00.

Mplx Trading Up 3.4 %

Shares of MPLX stock opened at $48.28 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. Mplx Lp has a 12-month low of $39.56 and a 12-month high of $54.87. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $52.68 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $49.23. The company has a market capitalization of $49.36 billion, a PE ratio of 11.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.11.

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

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.9565 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $3.83 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.93%. Mplx’s payout ratio is 90.74%.

Insider Activity

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