Virtu Financial LLC Purchases New Stake in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 21,866 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,047,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. increased its position in Mplx by 4.9% in the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 1,933,486 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $85,963,000 after buying an additional 90,793 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its position in Mplx by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,568,200 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $75,054,000 after buying an additional 17,900 shares during the period. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT grew its position in Mplx by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT now owns 1,506,962 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $72,123,000 after purchasing an additional 8,166 shares during the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of Mplx by 5.3% in 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 during the period. Finally, Citigroup Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Mplx by 3.0% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,144,404 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $50,880,000 after buying an additional 33,772 shares during the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on MPLX. Barclays raised their target price on Mplx from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 14th. StockNews.com lowered Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Mplx from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Raymond James boosted their price target on Mplx from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Mplx from $56.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $54.00.

Insider Transactions at Mplx

In related news, VP Shawn M. Lyon bought 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $52.75 per share, with a total value of $211,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 25,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,334,522.25. This trade represents a 18.78 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Mplx Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Mplx stock opened at $53.68 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. The firm has a market cap of $54.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.40. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $52.71 and a 200-day simple moving average of $48.51. Mplx Lp has a fifty-two week low of $39.56 and a fifty-two week high of $54.87.

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

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a dividend of $0.9565 per share. This represents a $3.83 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.13%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 90.74%.

Mplx Company Profile

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.