Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Takes $8.64 Million Position in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 194,423 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,644,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MPLX. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC increased its stake in shares of Mplx by 4,274.2% in the second quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 811,371 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $346,000 after buying an additional 792,822 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its stake in shares of Mplx by 53.9% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 1,826,484 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $75,909,000 after buying an additional 639,851 shares during the period. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. increased its stake in shares of Mplx by 2.4% in the second quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 14,825,905 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $631,435,000 after buying an additional 353,324 shares during the period. Energy Income Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Mplx by 5.1% in the first quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 5,224,918 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $217,148,000 after buying an additional 255,211 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Mplx by 4.0% in the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 5,200,759 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $216,144,000 after buying an additional 201,500 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently commented on MPLX. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Mplx from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Bank of America initiated coverage on Mplx in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $43.00 target price on the stock. Barclays upped their target price on Mplx from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. UBS Group upped their target price on Mplx from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Mplx from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.67.

Mplx Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE MPLX opened at $44.13 on Wednesday. Mplx Lp has a 12 month low of $35.06 and a 12 month high of $45.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.37, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.37. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $43.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $42.21. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The pipeline company reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.17. Mplx had a return on equity of 32.68% and a net margin of 35.95%. The firm had revenue of $3.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.96 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.91 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Mplx Lp will post 4.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were given a dividend of $0.85 per share. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio is presently 87.63%.

About Mplx

MPLX LP owns and operates midstream energy infrastructure and logistics assets primarily in the United States. It operates in two segments, Logistics and Storage, and Gathering and Processing. The company is involved in the gathering, processing, and transportation of natural gas; gathering, transportation, fractionation, storage, and marketing of natural gas liquids; gathering, storage, transportation, and distribution of crude oil and refined products, as well as other hydrocarbon-based products and renewables; and sale of residue gas and condensate.