Jennison Associates LLC Has $63 Million Stake in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Jennison Associates LLC reduced its position in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,416,928 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 17,949 shares during the quarter. Jennison Associates LLC’s holdings in Mplx were worth $62,997,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. lifted its holdings in shares of Mplx by 2.4% during the second quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 14,825,905 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $631,435,000 after buying an additional 353,324 shares in the last quarter. ING Groep NV increased its position in Mplx by 69.8% during the third quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 6,628,400 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $294,699,000 after acquiring an additional 2,725,000 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP raised its stake in Mplx by 0.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 45,271 shares in the last quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Mplx by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 5,580,052 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $248,089,000 after purchasing an additional 34,659 shares during the period. Finally, Energy Income Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Mplx by 5.1% during the 1st quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 5,224,918 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $217,148,000 after purchasing an additional 255,211 shares in the last quarter. 24.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on MPLX shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Mplx from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com upgraded Mplx from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group raised their target price on Mplx from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Mplx from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Mplx in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $43.00 price objective for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $49.44.

Mplx Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSE MPLX opened at $47.58 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. Mplx Lp has a 52 week low of $35.51 and a 52 week high of $47.79. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $44.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $42.85. The company has a market cap of $48.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.37.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last released 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). The business had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.09 billion. Mplx had a return on equity of 32.70% and a net margin of 36.77%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.89 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Mplx Lp will post 4.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mplx Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th were given a $0.9565 dividend. This is a boost from Mplx’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $3.83 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.04%. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 90.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mplx

In other Mplx news, VP Carl Kristopher Hagedorn sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.24, for a total transaction of $188,960.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 14,750 shares in the company, valued at approximately $696,790. This trade represents a 21.33 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

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.