Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) Plans $0.85 Quarterly Dividend

Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 24th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors 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 yield of 8.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 2nd.

Mplx has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.9% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 10 consecutive years. Mplx has a payout ratio of 78.9% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings fall. Analysts expect Mplx to earn $4.36 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 78.0%.

Mplx Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of Mplx stock opened at $41.76 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.07. The company has a market capitalization of $42.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.96 and a beta of 1.35. Mplx has a 1 year low of $33.12 and a 1 year high of $42.89. The company’s fifty day moving average is $40.48 and its two-hundred day moving average is $37.92.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The pipeline company reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.88 billion. Mplx had a return on equity of 31.85% and a net margin of 34.82%. The business’s revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.78 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Mplx will post 4.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group boosted their target price on Mplx from $46.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Mplx from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Mplx from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Mplx from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Mplx from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research 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 given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Mplx presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target 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.