Barclays PLC Sells 1,744,046 Shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Barclays PLC lessened its stake in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX - Free Report) by 46.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,016,821 shares of the pipeline company's stock after selling 1,744,046 shares during the quarter. Barclays PLC owned about 0.20% of Mplx worth $89,668,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MPLX. Captrust Financial Advisors grew its holdings in Mplx by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 60,475 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $2,689,000 after acquiring an additional 231 shares during the period. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Mplx by 1.4% during the third quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 19,701 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $876,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares during the period. Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Mplx by 2.0% during the third quarter. Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 14,204 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $632,000 after purchasing an additional 279 shares during the period. FORA Capital LLC increased its holdings in Mplx by 2.2% in the third quarter. FORA Capital LLC now owns 15,320 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $681,000 after purchasing an additional 332 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fidelis Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Mplx by 3.9% in the third quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 9,032 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $396,000 after buying an additional 338 shares during the period. 24.25% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Mplx from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Mplx from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Mplx from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Mplx from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Mplx from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $49.44.

Mplx Stock Up 0.8 %

NYSE MPLX traded up $0.41 on Thursday, reaching $48.65. The company had a trading volume of 1,650,493 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,847,911. The company's fifty day moving average is $46.38 and its 200-day moving average is $43.76. Mplx Lp has a 1-year low of $35.51 and a 1-year high of $51.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $49.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.99.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The pipeline company reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.09 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.89 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Mplx Lp will post 4.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th were issued a $0.9565 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. 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 dividend yield of 7.87%. Mplx's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 90.09%.

Insider Transactions at Mplx

In other Mplx news, VP Carl Kristopher Hagedorn sold 4,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was 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 directly owns 14,750 shares in the company, valued at $696,790. This trade represents a 21.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Mplx 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.