Mplx Lp to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.85 (NYSE:MPLX)

Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 23rd, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.85 per share by the pipeline company on Monday, May 13th. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 2nd.

Mplx has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.9% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 10 years. Mplx has a dividend payout ratio of 78.9% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings fall. Research analysts expect Mplx to earn $4.35 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 78.2%.

Mplx Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of MPLX stock opened at $41.80 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $40.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.11. Mplx has a fifty-two week low of $33.12 and a fifty-two week high of $42.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.97 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The pipeline company reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.99 by ($0.01). Mplx had a net margin of 34.82% and a return on equity of 31.85%. The firm had revenue of $2.85 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.89 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.91 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Mplx will post 4.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on MPLX. UBS Group raised their target price on Mplx from $46.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Barclays raised their target price on Mplx from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. StockNews.com raised Mplx from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Mplx from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James upped their target price on Mplx from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Mplx has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.86.

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.