Merit Financial Group LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Mplx Lp $MPLX

Merit Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 126.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 43,234 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 24,107 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Mplx were worth $2,307,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MPLX. Caprock Group LLC purchased a new position in Mplx during the third quarter valued at $2,698,000. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH purchased a new position in Mplx during the third quarter valued at $990,000. Bridges Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Mplx by 53.2% during the third quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. now owns 103,351 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $5,162,000 after buying an additional 35,869 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Mplx by 1.2% during the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 26,409,654 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,319,162,000 after buying an additional 325,451 shares during the period. Finally, Texas Yale Capital Corp. lifted its position in Mplx by 8.9% during the third quarter. Texas Yale Capital Corp. now owns 299,845 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $14,977,000 after buying an additional 24,405 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Mplx Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MPLX opened at $55.51 on Wednesday. Mplx Lp has a 1-year low of $47.80 and a 1-year high of $59.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 1.18. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $57.35 and a 200-day moving average price of $54.62. The company has a market capitalization of $56.36 billion, a PE ratio of 11.52, a PEG ratio of 5.15 and a beta of 0.56.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The pipeline company reported $1.17 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.07. Mplx had a return on equity of 34.37% and a net margin of 37.79%.The firm had revenue of $5.99 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.23 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.07 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Mplx Lp will post 4.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The business 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. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 9th. This represents a $4.31 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.8%. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 89.21%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on MPLX. Stifel Nicolaus raised 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. UBS Group raised their price objective on Mplx from $64.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 16th. Raymond James Financial lowered Mplx from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on Mplx from $67.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Mplx from $55.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $62.00.

Mplx 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.