Abel Hall LLC Purchases New Holdings in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Abel Hall LLC purchased a new position in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 10,000 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $479,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MPLX. Cedar Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Mplx during the third quarter worth about $51,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Mplx by 56.3% during the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,135 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $54,000 after acquiring an additional 409 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Mplx by 393.0% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 3,451 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $153,000 after acquiring an additional 2,751 shares during the last quarter. Archford Capital Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Mplx in the 4th quarter valued at $200,000. Finally, Zhang Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Mplx during the 3rd quarter valued at $202,000. Institutional investors own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on MPLX shares. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Mplx from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Mplx in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $43.00 price objective for the company. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Mplx from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Mplx from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $49.89.

Mplx Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:MPLX opened at $51.77 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $49.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $45.58. Mplx Lp has a 1 year low of $37.04 and a 1 year high of $53.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The company has a market capitalization of $52.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 1.43.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The pipeline company reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.05 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.09 billion. Mplx had a return on equity of 32.70% and a net margin of 36.77%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.89 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Mplx Lp will post 4.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be issued a $0.9565 dividend. This represents a $3.83 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio is currently 90.33%.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Carl Kristopher Hagedorn sold 4,000 shares of Mplx stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.24, for a total value of $188,960.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 14,750 shares in the company, valued at approximately $696,790. This trade represents a 21.33 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

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.