Mplx Lp Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.96 (NYSE:MPLX)

Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 22nd,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.9565 per share by the pipeline company on Friday, February 14th. This represents a $3.83 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.37%.

Mplx has raised its dividend by an average of 8.2% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 11 consecutive years. Mplx has a payout ratio of 83.4% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Analysts expect Mplx to earn $4.32 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.83 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 88.7%.

Mplx Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE:MPLX opened at $51.92 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $48.69 and its 200-day moving average is $45.24. 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 has a 52 week low of $37.04 and a 52 week high of $53.15. The company has a market capitalization of $52.90 billion, a PE ratio of 12.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.43.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The pipeline company reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.09 billion. Mplx had a net margin of 36.77% and a return on equity of 32.70%. Mplx’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.89 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Mplx will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mplx

In other news, VP Carl Kristopher Hagedorn sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the vice president now directly owns 14,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $696,790. This represents a 21.33 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on MPLX shares. Barclays raised their price target on Mplx from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Truist Financial raised their target price on Mplx from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Mplx in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $43.00 price target on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Mplx from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Mplx from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Sunday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Mplx presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.89.

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.