Wells Fargo & Company Issues Positive Forecast for Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) Stock Price

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) had its target price hoisted by Wells Fargo & Company from $50.00 to $53.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the pipeline company’s stock.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Mplx from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Mplx from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com downgraded Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group raised their target price on Mplx from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on Mplx in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $43.00 price objective for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.00.

Mplx Price Performance

Shares of Mplx stock traded down $1.07 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $45.98. 2,083,320 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,829,378. Mplx has a 1 year low of $35.07 and a 1 year high of $47.62. The company has a market capitalization of $46.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.37. The business has a fifty day moving average of $44.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $42.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The pipeline company reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.05 by ($0.04). Mplx had a net margin of 35.95% and a return on equity of 32.68%. The firm had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.89 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Mplx will post 4.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.9565 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 8th. This is an increase from Mplx’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.83 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.32%. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 90.09%.

Institutional Trading of Mplx

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. lifted its position in shares of Mplx by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 14,825,905 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $631,435,000 after buying an additional 353,324 shares during the period. ING Groep NV lifted its position in shares of Mplx by 69.8% during the 3rd quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 6,628,400 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $294,699,000 after buying an additional 2,725,000 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Mplx by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 5,735,562 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $255,003,000 after buying an additional 45,271 shares during the period. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Mplx by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 5,580,052 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $248,089,000 after buying an additional 34,659 shares during the period. Finally, Energy Income Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Mplx by 5.1% during the 1st quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 5,224,918 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $217,148,000 after buying an additional 255,211 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Mplx Company Profile

MPLX LP owns and operates midstream energy infrastructure and logistics assets primarily in the United States. It operates in two segments, Logistics and Storage, and Gathering and Processing. The company is involved in the gathering, processing, and transportation of natural gas; gathering, transportation, fractionation, storage, and marketing of natural gas liquids; gathering, storage, transportation, and distribution of crude oil and refined products, as well as other hydrocarbon-based products and renewables; and sale of residue gas and condensate.