Kovack Advisors Inc. Raises Position in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Kovack Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 9.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 16,946 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,522 shares during the quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Mplx were worth $622,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Alps Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Mplx by 18.9% in the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 28,771,793 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,023,413,000 after buying an additional 4,579,152 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Mplx by 4.0% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,917,505 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $744,036,000 after purchasing an additional 809,273 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its position in Mplx by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 6,463,737 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $237,348,000 after purchasing an additional 154,529 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG raised its position in Mplx by 12.2% during the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 5,869,436 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $208,776,000 after purchasing an additional 639,199 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its position in Mplx by 440.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,649,301 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $200,946,000 after purchasing an additional 4,604,066 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Mplx Stock Up 0.2 %

MPLX opened at $41.95 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $42.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.01 and a beta of 1.35. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $40.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $38.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52. Mplx Lp has a 12 month low of $33.12 and a 12 month high of $42.89.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The pipeline company reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.88 billion. Mplx had a return on equity of 31.85% and a net margin of 34.82%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.78 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Mplx Lp will post 4.1 EPS for the current year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 13th. Investors of record on Friday, May 3rd will be paid a $0.85 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 2nd. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.10%. Mplx’s payout ratio is presently 89.24%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on MPLX. Barclays raised their price target on Mplx from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. UBS Group raised their price target on Mplx from $46.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. StockNews.com upgraded Mplx from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Raymond James raised their price target on Mplx from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Mplx from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.86.

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.