Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC Has $2.58 Million Stake in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its holdings in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 15.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 53,827 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 7,196 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in Mplx were worth $2,576,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Mplx during the 4th quarter valued at $1,197,000. Bedel Financial Consulting Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Mplx during the fourth quarter worth $487,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its holdings in Mplx by 1,067.7% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 5,932 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $284,000 after purchasing an additional 5,424 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its holdings in Mplx by 25.7% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 66,977 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,206,000 after purchasing an additional 13,709 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Mplx in the fourth quarter valued at about $286,000. 24.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Mplx Trading Up 0.6 %

MPLX opened at $52.65 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $51.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $47.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $53.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.95 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 $54.79.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The pipeline company reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $3.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. Mplx had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 36.18%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.10 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal 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 paid a dividend of $0.9565 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $3.83 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.27%. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio is currently 90.74%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on MPLX shares. StockNews.com lowered Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 2nd. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Mplx from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Mplx from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Mplx from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Mplx from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Mplx currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $52.11.

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.