Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI Invests $2.27 Million in Mplx Lp $MPLX

Key Points

• Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI purchased 42,400 shares of MPLX LP valued at approximately $2,269,000 as part of their new stake in the company.
• MPLX recently reported quarterly earnings of $1.03 EPS, missing expectations, with a revenue of $2.79 billion, down 1.6% from the previous year.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.9565, representing an annualized yield of 7.6%, with a payout ratio of 90.97%.

Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI purchased a new stake in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 42,400 shares of the pipeline company's stock, valued at approximately $2,269,000.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Mplx by 0.6% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 13,649,224 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $730,506,000 after acquiring an additional 83,392 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Mplx by 38.2% during the first quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 7,788,063 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $416,817,000 after acquiring an additional 2,153,490 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Mplx by 0.7% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 6,955,456 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $372,256,000 after acquiring an additional 50,979 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Mplx by 14.9% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,045,968 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $270,060,000 after acquiring an additional 654,489 shares during the period. Finally, Westwood Holdings Group Inc. grew its position in Mplx by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 2,279,124 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $109,079,000 after buying an additional 108,228 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 24.25% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MPLX has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Mplx from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Mplx from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Mplx from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Mplx from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $55.89.

Mplx Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MPLX traded up $0.34 on Monday, hitting $51.42. 354,385 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,582,665. The company's 50 day moving average price is $50.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $51.15. Mplx Lp has a one year low of $43.53 and a one year high of $54.87. 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 capitalization of $52.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.21, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.74.

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

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 8th were given a dividend of $0.9565 per share. This represents a $3.83 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.4%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 8th. Mplx's dividend payout ratio is presently 90.97%.

About Mplx

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.