Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) Hits New 52-Week High – What’s Next?

Shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $54.79 and last traded at $54.25, with a volume of 184054 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $53.91.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on MPLX. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Mplx from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Mplx from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Raymond James raised their target price on Mplx from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Mplx from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Mplx has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.11.

Mplx Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $54.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.63, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. The company’s 50-day moving average is $51.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $47.52.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The pipeline company reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by $0.03. Mplx had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 36.18%. The company had revenue of $3.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.10 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.9565 per share. This represents a $3.83 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.20%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio is 90.74%.

Institutional Trading of Mplx

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MPLX. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its position in Mplx by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 21,520 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,030,000 after purchasing an additional 231 shares in the last quarter. Alpine Global Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Mplx in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $292,000. Novem Group bought a new position in shares of Mplx in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $814,000. First Heartland Consultants Inc. increased its position in shares of Mplx by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. First Heartland Consultants Inc. now owns 9,857 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $472,000 after acquiring an additional 408 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC. lifted its holdings in Mplx by 15.4% during the fourth quarter. Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC. now owns 58,775 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,813,000 after acquiring an additional 7,822 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

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.