Howard Financial Services LTD. Makes New Investment in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Howard Financial Services LTD. acquired a new position in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 20,437 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $849,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Alps Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Mplx by 18.9% during the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 28,771,793 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,023,413,000 after buying an additional 4,579,152 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Mplx by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 6,463,737 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $237,348,000 after acquiring an additional 154,529 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its position in Mplx by 23.4% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 3,028,327 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $111,200,000 after acquiring an additional 574,737 shares during the last quarter. ING Groep NV lifted its position in Mplx by 21.2% during the 4th quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 2,740,500 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $100,631,000 after acquiring an additional 480,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY lifted its position in Mplx by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 2,385,733 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $99,151,000 after acquiring an additional 22,734 shares during the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on MPLX shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Mplx from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Mplx from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Mplx from $46.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Mplx from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Mplx currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $45.11.

Mplx Price Performance

NYSE MPLX traded up $0.24 on Friday, reaching $42.59. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 796,062 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,083,901. The firm has a market cap of $43.28 billion, a PE ratio of 10.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 1.35. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $41.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.54. Mplx Lp has a 52 week low of $33.78 and a 52 week high of $42.90. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.44.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The pipeline company reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $2.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.89 billion. Mplx had a net margin of 34.96% and a return on equity of 31.70%. The business’s revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.91 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Mplx Lp will post 4.01 EPS for the current year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 2nd. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.98%. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio is 87.63%.

About Mplx

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.