Wall Street Zen Downgrades Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) to Hold

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) was downgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Saturday.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on MPLX. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Mplx from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Barclays increased their price objective on Mplx from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Citigroup increased their price objective on Mplx from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Mplx from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Finally, Raymond James Financial lowered Mplx from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.89.

Mplx Price Performance

Shares of Mplx stock opened at $56.14 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $56.99 billion, a PE ratio of 11.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.17 and a beta of 0.56. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $57.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $54.36. Mplx has a 12 month low of $46.72 and a 12 month high of $59.98.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 3rd. The pipeline company reported $1.17 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $5.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.23 billion. Mplx had a return on equity of 34.37% and a net margin of 37.79%.The company’s revenue was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.07 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Mplx will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Mplx

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Mplx by 2.2% during the 3rd 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 purchased a new stake in Mplx during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,698,000. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH purchased a new stake in Mplx during the 3rd quarter valued at about $990,000. Bridges Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Mplx by 53.2% during the 3rd 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 boosted its holdings in Mplx by 17.0% during the 3rd 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 currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Mplx Company Profile

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.