Epoch Investment Partners Inc. Purchases 161,901 Shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Epoch Investment Partners Inc. lifted its holdings in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX - Free Report) by 13.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,378,594 shares of the pipeline company's stock after purchasing an additional 161,901 shares during the period. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. owned about 0.14% of Mplx worth $65,980,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. FMR LLC raised its position in Mplx by 141.1% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,985,181 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $95,011,000 after buying an additional 1,161,714 shares during the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. lifted its position in Mplx by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 1,971,331 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $94,348,000 after purchasing an additional 37,845 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its position in Mplx by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,568,200 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $75,054,000 after purchasing an additional 17,900 shares during the period. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $72,123,000 after buying an additional 8,166 shares during the period. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC increased its holdings in shares of Mplx by 5,070.0% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 977,794 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $46,797,000 after purchasing an additional 958,881 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 24.25% of the company's stock.

Mplx Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of Mplx stock traded up $0.54 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $51.16. 1,650,813 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,781,766. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.99. The company has a market cap of $52.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.11. Mplx Lp has a 52 week low of $39.84 and a 52 week high of $54.87. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $52.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.54.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The pipeline company reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.04 by $0.03. Mplx had a net margin of 36.18% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The business had revenue of $3.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.10 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MPLX has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Mplx from $56.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Mplx from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, March 14th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Mplx from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Mplx from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Mplx from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Sunday, March 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $54.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP Shawn M. Lyon acquired 4,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $52.75 per share, for a total transaction of $211,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the vice president now owns 25,299 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,334,522.25. This trade represents a 18.78 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

About Mplx

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.