Mplx Lp Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.85 (NYSE:MPLX)

Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, July 30th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th will be given a dividend of 0.85 per share by the pipeline company on Friday, August 16th. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 9th.

Mplx has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.9% per year over the last three years. Mplx has a dividend payout ratio of 78.9% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Equities research analysts expect Mplx to earn $4.32 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 78.7%.

Mplx Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of MPLX stock traded down $0.30 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $42.81. 1,232,174 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,973,812. Mplx has a 1-year low of $34.32 and a 1-year high of $43.42. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $41.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.50 billion, a PE ratio of 11.15, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.37.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The pipeline company reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.01). Mplx had a net margin of 34.96% and a return on equity of 31.70%. The firm had revenue of $2.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.89 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.91 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Mplx will post 4.02 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on MPLX. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Mplx from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Mplx from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Mplx from $46.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Mplx from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Mplx from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $45.75.

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.