Raymond James & Associates Acquires 29,388 Shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 8.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 398,340 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 29,388 shares during the quarter. Raymond James & Associates’ holdings in Mplx were worth $17,710,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MPLX. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC boosted its stake in shares of Mplx by 4,274.2% in the 2nd quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 811,371 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $346,000 after buying an additional 792,822 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in shares of Mplx by 53.9% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 1,826,484 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $75,909,000 after buying an additional 639,851 shares during the last quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. boosted its stake in shares of Mplx by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 14,825,905 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $631,435,000 after buying an additional 353,324 shares during the last quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Mplx by 5.1% in the 1st quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 5,224,918 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $217,148,000 after buying an additional 255,211 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Mplx by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 5,200,759 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $216,144,000 after buying an additional 201,500 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MPLX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Mplx from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com upgraded Mplx from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Mplx from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Barclays lifted their target price on Mplx from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on Mplx from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.67.

Mplx Price Performance

Shares of Mplx stock opened at $43.93 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.25. Mplx Lp has a 52 week low of $35.06 and a 52 week high of $45.24. The company has a market capitalization of $44.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.66, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The pipeline company reported $1.15 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 business had revenue of $3.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.96 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.91 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Mplx Lp will post 4.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were given a $0.85 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.74%. Mplx’s payout ratio is 82.52%.

Mplx Profile

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.