Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) Shares Sold by Allianz Asset Management GmbH

Allianz Asset Management GmbH lowered its stake in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX - Free Report) by 18.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,275,200 shares of the pipeline company's stock after selling 293,000 shares during the quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH owned 0.12% of Mplx worth $68,249,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Mplx by 141.1% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,985,181 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $95,011,000 after purchasing an additional 1,161,714 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Mplx during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,917,000. Neuberger Berman Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Mplx by 221.9% in the fourth quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 643,995 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $30,822,000 after purchasing an additional 443,910 shares during the period. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT boosted its position in shares of Mplx by 21.0% in the first quarter. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT now owns 1,822,709 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $97,551,000 after purchasing an additional 315,747 shares during the period. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 6,904,477 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $330,448,000 after buying an additional 266,998 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 24.25% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Mplx from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $55.63.

Mplx Stock Performance

MPLX stock traded down $0.37 during trading on Friday, reaching $50.95. The company had a trading volume of 600,341 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,617,197. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $51.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $51.46. The company has a market cap of $52.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.08. Mplx Lp has a twelve month low of $39.95 and a twelve month high of $54.87.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The pipeline company reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.03. Mplx had a net margin of 36.34% and a return on equity of 32.08%. The company had revenue of $2.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.15 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. Mplx's revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 9th were issued a dividend of $0.9565 per share. This represents a $3.83 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.51%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 9th. Mplx's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 88.45%.

Mplx Company 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.