Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC Boosts Holdings in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 11.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 19,811 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,070 shares during the quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Mplx were worth $823,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of MPLX. Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new stake in Mplx in the 4th quarter worth about $67,253,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in Mplx by 53.9% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 1,826,484 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $75,909,000 after buying an additional 639,851 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its holdings in Mplx by 23.4% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 3,028,327 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $111,200,000 after buying an additional 574,737 shares in the last quarter. ING Groep NV increased its holdings in Mplx by 21.2% in the 4th quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 2,740,500 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $100,631,000 after buying an additional 480,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its holdings in Mplx by 170.6% in the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 637,100 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $23,394,000 after buying an additional 401,700 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MPLX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Mplx from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Mplx from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. StockNews.com cut shares of Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 24th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Mplx from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Mplx from $46.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $45.75.

Mplx Price Performance

Shares of MPLX stock traded up $0.66 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $43.07. The company had a trading volume of 2,260,836 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,991,542. Mplx Lp has a 52-week low of $34.32 and a 52-week high of $43.42. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $41.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $40.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.44, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The company has a market capitalization of $43.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.37.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The pipeline company reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.99 by ($0.01). Mplx had a return on equity of 31.70% and a net margin of 34.96%. The company had revenue of $2.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.89 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.91 EPS. Mplx’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Mplx Lp will post 4.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Mplx Company Profile

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.