Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC Sells 681 Shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC reduced its holdings in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 3.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 17,517 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 681 shares during the quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC’s holdings in Mplx were worth $838,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. ING Groep NV grew its position in shares of Mplx by 69.8% in the 3rd quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 6,628,400 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $294,699,000 after buying an additional 2,725,000 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Mplx by 0.8% during the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 5,735,562 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $255,003,000 after purchasing an additional 45,271 shares in the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. boosted its position in shares of Mplx by 4.9% during the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 1,933,486 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $85,963,000 after purchasing an additional 90,793 shares in the last quarter. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT boosted its position in shares of Mplx by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT now owns 1,506,962 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $72,123,000 after purchasing an additional 8,166 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of Mplx by 5.3% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 1,276,828 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $56,768,000 after purchasing an additional 64,714 shares in the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on MPLX shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Mplx from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Barclays lifted their price target on Mplx from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Bank of America started coverage on Mplx in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $43.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group boosted their target price on Mplx from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Mplx presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $52.11.

Mplx Stock Up 1.9 %

MPLX stock opened at $53.62 on Friday. Mplx Lp has a 1-year low of $37.93 and a 1-year high of $54.18. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $49.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $46.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $54.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.42.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The pipeline company reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.04 by $0.03. Mplx had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 36.18%. The firm had revenue of $3.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.07 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.10 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Mplx Lp will post 4.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a $0.9565 dividend. This represents a $3.83 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio is currently 90.74%.

Insider Transactions at Mplx

In related news, VP Carl Kristopher Hagedorn sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.24, for a total transaction of $188,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 14,750 shares in the company, valued at approximately $696,790. This represents a 21.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

About Mplx

MPLX LP engages in the operation of midstream energy infrastructure and logistics assets, and distribution fuels services. It operates through the Logistics and Storage (L&S) and Gathering and Processing (G&P) segments. The Logistics and Storage segment transports, stores, distributes, and markets crude oil, asphalt, refined petroleum products, and water.