Avenir Corp Sells 872 Shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Avenir Corp cut its holdings in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 0.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 183,294 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 872 shares during the period. Mplx comprises about 0.9% of Avenir Corp’s holdings, making the stock its 21st biggest position. Avenir Corp’s holdings in Mplx were worth $8,772,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MPLX. CFO4Life Group LLC raised its position in Mplx by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. CFO4Life Group LLC now owns 19,200 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $919,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. RE Dickinson Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Mplx by 11.5% in the 4th quarter. RE Dickinson Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,017 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $96,000 after purchasing an additional 208 shares during the period. GraniteShares Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Mplx by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. GraniteShares Advisors LLC now owns 51,441 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,462,000 after purchasing an additional 237 shares during the last quarter. Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Mplx by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 14,489 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $693,000 after purchasing an additional 285 shares during the period. Finally, Huntington National Bank increased its position in Mplx by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 3,900 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $187,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Shawn M. Lyon bought 4,000 shares of Mplx stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The shares were acquired 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 directly owns 25,299 shares in the company, valued at $1,334,522.25. The trade was a 18.78 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Mplx Price Performance

NYSE:MPLX opened at $50.27 on Thursday. Mplx Lp has a 52-week low of $39.79 and a 52-week high of $54.87. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $52.30 and a 200 day moving average of $49.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $51.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.11.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The pipeline company reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.10 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.9565 dividend. This represents a $3.83 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.61%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. Mplx’s payout ratio is 90.74%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Mplx from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Mplx from $56.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Mplx from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 14th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, March 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Mplx from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $54.00.

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.