Sanctuary Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 19,698 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $826,000.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its stake in Mplx by 4.8% in the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 140,154 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $5,969,000 after acquiring an additional 6,469 shares during the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its stake in shares of Mplx by 6.8% in the 2nd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 22,758 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $969,000 after purchasing an additional 1,457 shares during the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its holdings in Mplx by 12.6% in the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 16,888 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $719,000 after purchasing an additional 1,889 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its position in Mplx by 23.4% during the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 24,540 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,045,000 after buying an additional 4,660 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning increased its position in Mplx by 33.9% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 35,432 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,509,000 after buying an additional 8,979 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on MPLX. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $47.00 price target on shares of Mplx in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Mplx from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of Mplx from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Mplx from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Mplx from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.88.

Mplx Stock Performance

NYSE MPLX opened at $44.32 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $43.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $42.09. Mplx Lp has a 52-week low of $35.06 and a 52-week high of $45.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.37.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The pipeline company reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.17. Mplx had a return on equity of 32.68% and a net margin of 35.95%. The firm had revenue of $3.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.96 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.91 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Mplx Lp will post 4.24 EPS for the current year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th were given a $0.85 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.67%. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 87.63%.

About Mplx

MPLX LP owns and operates midstream energy infrastructure and logistics assets primarily in the United States. It operates in two segments, Logistics and Storage, and Gathering and Processing. The company is involved in the gathering, processing, and transportation of natural gas; gathering, transportation, fractionation, storage, and marketing of natural gas liquids; gathering, storage, transportation, and distribution of crude oil and refined products, as well as other hydrocarbon-based products and renewables; and sale of residue gas and condensate.