Insider Buying: Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) VP Purchases 4,000 Shares of Stock

Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) VP Shawn M. Lyon purchased 4,000 shares of Mplx stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $52.75 per share, with a total value of $211,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 25,299 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,334,522.25. This represents a 18.78 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Mplx Stock Performance

NYSE MPLX opened at $52.50 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $51.84 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $47.88. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.99 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. The firm has a market cap of $53.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.47, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.40.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The pipeline company reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.04 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $3.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. Mplx had a net margin of 36.18% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The company’s revenue was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.10 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.9565 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $3.83 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.29%. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio is currently 90.74%.

Institutional Trading of Mplx

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MPLX. ING Groep NV boosted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 69.8% during the third quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 6,628,400 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $294,699,000 after purchasing an additional 2,725,000 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 141.1% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,985,181 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $95,011,000 after purchasing an additional 1,161,714 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 5,070.0% during the fourth quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 977,794 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $46,797,000 after purchasing an additional 958,881 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Mplx during the fourth quarter worth about $41,917,000. Finally, Neuberger Berman Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 221.9% during the fourth quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 643,995 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $30,822,000 after purchasing an additional 443,910 shares during the period. 24.25% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on MPLX shares. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Mplx from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, March 2nd. Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Mplx from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Mplx from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Mplx from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $53.10.

Mplx Company Profile

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.