Spirit of America Management Corp NY Sells 19,500 Shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Spirit of America Management Corp NY decreased its holdings in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 11.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 147,397 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 19,500 shares during the period. Mplx accounts for approximately 1.4% of Spirit of America Management Corp NY’s holdings, making the stock its 18th biggest holding. Spirit of America Management Corp NY’s holdings in Mplx were worth $7,054,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. ING Groep NV lifted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 69.8% in the 3rd quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 6,628,400 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $294,699,000 after acquiring an additional 2,725,000 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 5,735,562 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $255,003,000 after acquiring an additional 45,271 shares during the last quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 5,580,052 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $248,089,000 after acquiring an additional 34,659 shares during the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. lifted its stake in Mplx by 4.9% in the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 1,933,486 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $85,963,000 after purchasing an additional 90,793 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT lifted its stake in Mplx by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT now owns 1,506,962 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $72,123,000 after purchasing an additional 8,166 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MPLX has been the subject of several analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Mplx from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group raised 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. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective 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 raised their price objective on shares of Mplx from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $50.50.

Mplx Stock Performance

Shares of MPLX stock opened at $52.45 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $53.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.37, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.42. The company’s 50 day moving average is $49.43 and its 200 day moving average is $45.85. 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 52-week low of $37.04 and a 52-week high of $53.55.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $3.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. Mplx had a net margin of 36.77% and a return on equity of 32.70%. Mplx’s revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.10 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Mplx Lp will post 4.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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 7.29%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio is currently 90.33%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Carl Kristopher Hagedorn sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.24, for a total transaction of $188,960.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 14,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $696,790. The trade was a 21.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available 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.