First Interstate Bank Buys New Shares in Mplx Lp $MPLX

First Interstate Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 16,000 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $799,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Mplx by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 24,049 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,287,000 after purchasing an additional 939 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its position in Mplx by 10.9% during the second quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 120,832 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $6,167,000 after acquiring an additional 11,844 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Mplx by 8.1% during the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 6,715 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $346,000 after acquiring an additional 504 shares in the last quarter. Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC purchased a new position in shares of Mplx during the second quarter worth approximately $1,894,000. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 7.7% in the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 3,165 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $163,000 after acquiring an additional 227 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MPLX has been the topic of several recent research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on shares of Mplx from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $57.00 price objective on shares of Mplx in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Raymond James Financial downgraded Mplx from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. Zacks Research upgraded Mplx from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Mplx from $60.00 to $59.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.00.

Mplx Price Performance

MPLX opened at $55.57 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $56.52 billion, a PE ratio of 11.77 and a beta of 0.56. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $54.05 and its 200-day moving average price is $51.75. Mplx Lp has a 52-week low of $44.60 and a 52-week high of $57.15.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The pipeline company reported $1.52 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.45. The company had revenue of $2.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.16 billion. Mplx had a return on equity of 34.14% and a net margin of 37.61%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Mplx Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 7th were paid a dividend of $1.0765 per share. This represents a $4.31 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 7th. This is a positive change from Mplx’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.96. Mplx’s payout ratio is presently 91.31%.

Mplx Profile

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.