Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) Short Interest Update

Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 8,980,000 shares, a drop of 15.2% from the December 15th total of 10,590,000 shares. Approximately 2.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,790,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.0 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mplx

In other news, VP Carl Kristopher Hagedorn sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.24, for a total value of $188,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 14,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $696,790. This represents a 21.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MPLX. ING Groep NV increased its holdings in Mplx by 69.8% in the third quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 6,628,400 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $294,699,000 after purchasing an additional 2,725,000 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Mplx by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 5,735,562 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $255,003,000 after buying an additional 45,271 shares during the period. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Mplx by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 5,580,052 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $248,089,000 after buying an additional 34,659 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Mplx by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 1,998,243 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $85,105,000 after acquiring an additional 24,091 shares during the period. Finally, Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. boosted its stake in Mplx by 4.9% during 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 acquiring an additional 90,793 shares in the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on MPLX shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Mplx from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. StockNews.com cut Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 11th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Mplx from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Bank of America initiated coverage on Mplx in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $43.00 target price for the company. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Mplx from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $49.89.

Mplx Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of Mplx stock traded up $0.64 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $50.83. The company had a trading volume of 1,256,394 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,563,169. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $48.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $44.98. Mplx has a fifty-two week low of $36.76 and a fifty-two week high of $51.94. The firm has a market cap of $51.78 billion, a PE ratio of 11.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The pipeline company reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by ($0.04). Mplx had a return on equity of 32.70% and a net margin of 36.77%. The firm had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.09 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.89 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Mplx will post 4.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Mplx Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th were issued a dividend of $0.9565 per share. This is an increase from Mplx’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.83 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.53%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 90.33%.

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.