Morgan Stanley Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) Stock Price

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) had its price objective cut by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley from $62.00 to $60.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the pipeline company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 8.06% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Mplx from $67.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Mplx from $64.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Mplx from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Mplx from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 11th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Mplx from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.60.

Mplx Price Performance

NYSE:MPLX traded down $0.06 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $55.53. 273,342 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,931,945. The company has a current ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.71. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $56.40 and its 200-day moving average is $55.35. The firm has a market cap of $56.34 billion, a PE ratio of 12.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.49. Mplx has a twelve month low of $47.80 and a twelve month high of $59.98.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by ($0.15). The company had revenue of $2.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.09 billion. Mplx had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 36.38%.The business’s revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.10 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Mplx will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Mplx

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MPLX. Western Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Mplx during the first quarter worth about $65,000. Opal Capital LLC increased its position in Mplx by 5.3% during the first quarter. Opal Capital LLC now owns 231,535 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $13,214,000 after purchasing an additional 11,746 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada increased its position in Mplx by 45.5% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,151,905 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $65,739,000 after purchasing an additional 360,427 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC increased its position in Mplx by 65.4% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 217,494 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $12,412,000 after purchasing an additional 86,020 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Infrastructure Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in Mplx by 2.9% during the first quarter. Infrastructure Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,068,251 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $60,965,000 after purchasing an additional 30,267 shares during the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Mplx

MPLX LP (NYSE: MPLX) is a midstream master limited partnership that owns, operates and develops energy infrastructure primarily across the United States. The company provides a range of midstream services including the gathering, transportation, storage and distribution of crude oil, refined petroleum products, natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs). MPLX also operates processing and fractionation facilities and supplies logistics services that connect producers, refiners and end-use markets.

The partnership’s asset base includes pipelines, storage terminals, rail and marine facilities, natural gas processing plants and NGL fractionators.