Royal Bank of Canada Boosts Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) Price Target to $52.00

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) had its target price upped by Royal Bank of Canada from $50.00 to $52.00 in a report released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the pipeline company’s stock.

MPLX has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Mplx in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $43.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Mplx from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Mplx from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Mplx from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Mplx from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Mplx currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.67.

Mplx Trading Up 0.9 %

Mplx stock opened at $47.46 on Monday. Mplx has a 52 week low of $35.51 and a 52 week high of $47.62. 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 $48.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $44.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $42.77.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The pipeline company reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by ($0.04). Mplx had a return on equity of 32.70% and a net margin of 36.77%. The company had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.89 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Mplx will post 4.31 EPS for the current year.

Mplx Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th were issued a $0.9565 dividend. This represents a $3.83 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This is an increase from Mplx’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 90.33%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MPLX. ING Groep NV raised its holdings in Mplx by 69.8% in the 3rd quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 6,628,400 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $294,699,000 after acquiring an additional 2,725,000 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 792,822 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Mplx by 387.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 823,467 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $36,611,000 after acquiring an additional 654,500 shares during the period. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 353,324 shares during the period. Finally, Energy Income Partners LLC raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 255,211 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Mplx Company 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.