HighTower Advisors LLC Increases Holdings in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

HighTower Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 5.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 593,566 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 32,976 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Mplx were worth $28,408,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. PFG Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 38.5% during the 4th quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 38,506 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,843,000 after purchasing an additional 10,705 shares during the last quarter. Walnut Private Equity Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Mplx by 479.6% in the fourth quarter. Walnut Private Equity Partners LLC now owns 153,600 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $7,351,000 after buying an additional 127,100 shares in the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC boosted its stake in Mplx by 387.5% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 23,543 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,047,000 after buying an additional 18,714 shares during the last quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA grew its holdings in Mplx by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 149,509 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $6,647,000 after buying an additional 10,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Mplx by 9,134.1% in the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 11,635 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $557,000 after acquiring an additional 11,509 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MPLX has been the subject of a number of research reports. Raymond James increased their target price on Mplx from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. 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 research note on Friday, November 15th. StockNews.com cut shares of Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 2nd. Truist Financial lifted their price target on Mplx from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Mplx from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $53.40.

Mplx Trading Up 2.0 %

MPLX opened at $53.43 on Friday. 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 stock’s 50 day moving average price is $52.12 and its 200-day moving average price is $48.02. Mplx Lp has a one year low of $39.56 and a one year high of $54.79. The stock has a market cap of $54.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.69, a P/E/G ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.40.

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

Mplx Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.9565 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $3.83 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.16%. Mplx’s payout ratio is 90.74%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mplx

In other news, VP Shawn M. Lyon bought 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $52.75 per share, with a total value of $211,000.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 25,299 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,334,522.25. This trade represents a 18.78 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Mplx 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.