Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) Stock Holdings Lessened by Natixis

Natixis trimmed its holdings in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX - Free Report) by 93.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,958 shares of the pipeline company's stock after selling 316,200 shares during the period. Natixis' holdings in Mplx were worth $1,147,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MPLX. CFO4Life Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Mplx by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. CFO4Life Group LLC now owns 19,200 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $919,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. RE Dickinson Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Mplx by 11.5% during the 4th quarter. RE Dickinson Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,017 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $96,000 after purchasing an additional 208 shares in the last quarter. GraniteShares Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Mplx by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. GraniteShares Advisors LLC now owns 51,441 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $2,462,000 after buying an additional 237 shares in the last quarter. Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Mplx by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 14,489 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $693,000 after acquiring an additional 285 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Curi RMB Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Mplx by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Curi RMB Capital LLC now owns 25,385 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $1,215,000 after acquiring an additional 290 shares in the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Mplx Stock Performance

Shares of MPLX stock traded up $0.02 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $52.54. The stock had a trading volume of 908,505 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,770,116. The firm has a market capitalization of $53.72 billion, a PE ratio of 12.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.11. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $51.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $49.71. Mplx Lp has a twelve month low of $39.84 and a twelve month high of $54.87. 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 - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The pipeline company reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.04 by $0.03. Mplx had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 36.18%. The firm had revenue of $3.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.07 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.10 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mplx

In other news, VP Shawn M. Lyon bought 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $52.75 per share, with a total value of $211,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the vice president now directly owns 25,299 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,334,522.25. The trade was a 18.78 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MPLX. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Mplx from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Mplx from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Mplx from $56.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Barclays lifted their price target on Mplx from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Finally, StockNews.com cut 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 issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $54.00.

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.