Blueprint Investment Partners LLC Purchases 92,429 Shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Blueprint Investment Partners LLC boosted its position in Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) by 134.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 161,356 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 92,429 shares during the period. Mplx makes up 1.2% of Blueprint Investment Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Blueprint Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Mplx were worth $7,723,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MPLX. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of Mplx in the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Mplx by 56.3% in the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,135 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $54,000 after buying an additional 409 shares in the last quarter. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR acquired a new position in shares of Mplx during the fourth quarter valued at about $56,000. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Mplx during the fourth quarter worth about $98,000. Finally, Allworth Financial LP raised its holdings in shares of Mplx by 25.1% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,576 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $134,000 after acquiring an additional 517 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 24.25% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on MPLX. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Mplx from $56.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Raymond James upped their price target on Mplx from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com cut Mplx from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, March 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Mplx from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Mplx from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Mplx news, VP Shawn M. Lyon purchased 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $52.75 per share, for a total transaction of $211,000.00. Following the purchase, the vice president now owns 25,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,334,522.25. This represents a 18.78 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Mplx Stock Performance

Shares of MPLX stock opened at $53.68 on Friday. 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 firm has a market cap of $54.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.40. Mplx Lp has a 52 week low of $39.56 and a 52 week high of $54.87. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $52.71 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $48.46.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The pipeline company reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.04 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $3.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.07 billion. Mplx had a return on equity of 31.94% and a net margin of 36.18%. Mplx’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.10 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Mplx Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.9565 per share. This represents a $3.83 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.13%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. Mplx’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 90.74%.

Mplx 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.