Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Key Points

• Shares of MPLX carry a consensus analyst rating of Moderate Buy from 12 firms, with an average 12‑month target of $61.44 (6 buys, 5 holds, 1 strong buy).
• MPLX recently paid a quarterly dividend of $1.0765 ($4.31 annualized) for a 7.6% dividend yield, though the payout ratio is high at about 89%.
• The company beat the latest quarter's EPS estimate ($1.17 vs. $1.10) and reported $5.99B in revenue, with strong profitability metrics (ROE 34.37%, net margin 37.79%) while trading near $56 with a P/E of ~11.7.

Shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the twelve research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $61.4444.

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on MPLX shares. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Mplx from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Raymond James Financial downgraded Mplx from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. Citigroup upped their price target on Mplx from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (a-)" rating on shares of Mplx in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Mplx from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 10th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Mplx by 2.2% in the third quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 5,611,824 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $280,311,000 after acquiring an additional 120,216 shares during the period. Caprock Group LLC bought a new position in Mplx in the third quarter valued at about $2,698,000. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH bought a new position in Mplx in the third quarter valued at about $990,000. Bridges Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Mplx by 53.2% in the third quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. now owns 103,351 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $5,162,000 after acquiring an additional 35,869 shares during the period. Finally, U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Mplx by 17.0% in the third quarter. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 578,009 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $28,872,000 after acquiring an additional 84,151 shares during the period. 24.25% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Mplx Trading Up 0.8%

NYSE MPLX opened at $56.31 on Friday. Mplx has a 12 month low of $46.29 and a 12 month high of $59.98. The stock has a market cap of $57.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.68, a P/E/G ratio of 5.12 and a beta of 0.56. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $57.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $54.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX - Get Free Report) last released its 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. The firm had revenue of $5.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.23 billion. Mplx had a return on equity of 34.37% and a net margin of 37.79%.The company's quarterly revenue was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.07 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Mplx will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 9th were issued a dividend of $1.0765 per share. This represents a $4.31 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 9th. Mplx's dividend payout ratio is presently 89.21%.

About Mplx

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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