Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC Lowers Stock Position in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC trimmed its stake in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 18.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 9,419 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 2,066 shares during the period. Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Mplx were worth $451,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cerity Partners LLC grew its position in Mplx by 42.5% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 41,028 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,824,000 after acquiring an additional 12,236 shares in the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. increased its stake in Mplx by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 25,400 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,129,000 after buying an additional 862 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Mplx by 387.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 823,467 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $36,611,000 after buying an additional 654,500 shares in the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Mplx by 15.1% during the third quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 6,286 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $279,000 after acquiring an additional 826 shares during the period. Finally, Glenmede Trust Co. NA raised its stake in shares of Mplx by 7.2% in the third quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 149,509 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $6,647,000 after acquiring an additional 10,000 shares in the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Mplx Price Performance

Shares of MPLX opened at $54.02 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $55.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.40. Mplx Lp has a fifty-two week low of $39.56 and a fifty-two week high of $54.87. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $53.07 and a 200-day simple moving average of $48.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.99.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The pipeline company reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.04 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $3.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.10 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.9565 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $3.83 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.08%. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio is presently 90.74%.

Insider Activity at Mplx

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 purchased at an average price of $52.75 per share, for a total transaction of $211,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the vice president now owns 25,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,334,522.25. The trade was a 18.78 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on MPLX shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Mplx from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Mplx from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. 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 research report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com lowered Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, March 2nd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Mplx from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Mplx has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.