Merit Financial Group LLC Raises Stake in Mplx Lp $MPLX

Key Points

• Merit Financial Group boosted its stake in Mplx by 126.0% in Q4, owning 43,234 shares after buying an additional 24,107 shares, valued at about $2.31 million.
• Multiple brokers have raised price targets recently and Mplx holds a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" with an average price target of $62.00.
• Mplx beat quarterly EPS estimates ($1.17 vs. $1.10) on $5.99 billion revenue and pays an annualized dividend of $4.31 for a yield of 7.8% (payout ratio ~89%).

Merit Financial Group LLC boosted its position in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX - Free Report) by 126.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 43,234 shares of the pipeline company's stock after buying an additional 24,107 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC's holdings in Mplx were worth $2,307,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Solstein Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Mplx during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Wiser Advisor Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Mplx during the third quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Root Financial Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Mplx during the third quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Quent Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Mplx during the third quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Finally, Groesbeck Investment Management Corp NJ purchased a new stake in shares of Mplx during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 24.25% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MPLX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Mplx from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, March 13th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Mplx from $64.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 16th. Barclays increased their price objective on Mplx from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 10th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (a-)" rating on shares of Mplx in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Mplx from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Mplx currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $62.00.

Mplx Stock Performance

Shares of MPLX stock opened at $55.51 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $57.35 and a 200 day moving average of $54.62. Mplx Lp has a 52 week low of $47.80 and a 52 week high of $59.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $56.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.52, a PEG ratio of 5.15 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The pipeline company reported $1.17 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.07. Mplx had a return on equity of 34.37% and a net margin of 37.79%.The company had revenue of $5.99 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.23 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.07 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Mplx Lp will post 4.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 17th. Investors of record on Monday, February 9th were paid a $1.0765 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 9th. This represents a $4.31 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.8%. Mplx's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 89.21%.

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.

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