Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Reduces Position in Mplx Lp $MPLX

Key Points

• Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC reduced its stake in MPLX LP by 24.9%, selling 25,426 shares and now holding a total of 76,535 shares valued at $4.1 million.
• Several institutional investors increased their positions in MPLX, with notable boosts from Goldman Sachs and Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, highlighting a strong investor interest in the pipeline company.
• MPLX reported a miss on earnings for the last quarter, posting $1.03 earnings per share against the expected $1.08, and had revenue of $2.79 billion, which also fell short of analyst expectations.

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC cut its stake in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX - Free Report) by 24.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 76,535 shares of the pipeline company's stock after selling 25,426 shares during the quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC's holdings in Mplx were worth $4,096,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MPLX. Neuberger Berman Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Mplx by 54.8% during the 1st quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 996,777 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $53,348,000 after purchasing an additional 352,782 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its position in Mplx by 3.6% in the 1st quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 614,791 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $32,904,000 after purchasing an additional 21,225 shares during the period. Eagle Global Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Mplx by 2.1% in the first quarter. Eagle Global Advisors LLC now owns 1,896,430 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $101,497,000 after purchasing an additional 39,427 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Mplx during the first quarter valued at approximately $12,279,000. Finally, Blueprint Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Mplx by 6.1% during the first quarter. Blueprint Investment Partners LLC now owns 171,274 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $9,167,000 after buying an additional 9,918 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 24.25% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Mplx from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Barclays lifted their target price on Mplx from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Mplx from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Mplx has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $56.11.

Mplx Stock Up 0.1%

Mplx stock traded up $0.0650 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $50.5450. 295,056 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,612,889. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.03. The firm has a market cap of $51.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.03, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.73. The business has a fifty day moving average of $50.97 and a 200 day moving average of $51.49. Mplx Lp has a 12-month low of $41.83 and a 12-month high of $54.87.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $1.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $2.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.13 billion. Mplx had a net margin of 35.44% and a return on equity of 30.95%. The company's revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.15 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 8th were issued a $0.9565 dividend. This represents a $3.83 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 8th. Mplx's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 90.97%.

Mplx Profile

MPLX LP engages in the operation of midstream energy infrastructure and logistics assets, and distribution fuels services. It operates through the Crude Oil and Products Logistics and Natural Gas and NGL Services segments. The Crude Oil and Products Logistics segment transports, stores, distributes, and markets crude oil, asphalt, refined petroleum products, and water.