Bedel Financial Consulting Inc. Makes New Investment in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Bedel Financial Consulting Inc. bought a new position in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 10,182 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $487,000.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in MPLX. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in Mplx during the third quarter worth $210,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Mplx by 393.0% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 3,451 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $153,000 after acquiring an additional 2,751 shares in the last quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Mplx by 19.4% during the 3rd quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC now owns 10,735 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $477,000 after purchasing an additional 1,745 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its stake in shares of Mplx by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 44,894 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,996,000 after purchasing an additional 1,338 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of Mplx by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 57,809 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,535,000 after purchasing an additional 5,569 shares during the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Mplx Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:MPLX opened at $54.22 on Tuesday. Mplx Lp has a 12-month low of $39.01 and a 12-month high of $54.79. The company has a market capitalization of $55.24 billion, a PE ratio of 12.88, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.42. The business has a 50 day moving average of $51.27 and a two-hundred day moving average of $47.44. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The pipeline company reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.04 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $3.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.07 billion. Mplx had a net margin of 36.18% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The business’s revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.10 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.9565 per share. This represents a $3.83 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Mplx’s payout ratio is 90.74%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on MPLX shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Mplx from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Barclays increased their price objective on Mplx from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Mplx from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price objective on Mplx from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Mplx currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.11.

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.