US Bancorp DE Raises Stock Position in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

US Bancorp DE raised its stake in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 25.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 66,977 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,709 shares during the quarter. US Bancorp DE’s holdings in Mplx were worth $3,206,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 60,475 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,689,000 after buying an additional 231 shares in the last quarter. GraniteShares Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. GraniteShares Advisors LLC now owns 51,441 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,462,000 after buying an additional 237 shares in the last quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 19,701 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $876,000 after buying an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 14,489 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $693,000 after buying an additional 285 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FORA Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. FORA Capital LLC now owns 15,320 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $681,000 after buying an additional 332 shares in the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MPLX. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Mplx from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group upped their price target 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 note on Sunday, March 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Mplx from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Mplx from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.11.

Mplx Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MPLX opened at $52.40 on Friday. Mplx Lp has a fifty-two week low of $39.56 and a fifty-two week high of $54.79. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $51.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $47.59. 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 cap of $53.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.42.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 36.18% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The firm had revenue of $3.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.10 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a dividend of $0.9565 per share. This represents a $3.83 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Mplx’s payout ratio is currently 90.74%.

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.