MPLX LP, ticker MPLX, is a large-cap oil and gas midstream company operating in the energy business sector. This is the first of five energy sector candidates competing for the fifty-first slot in my Viital folio. It is my first report on MPLX for my Viital portfolio. I may have  mentioned MPLX once in previous reports.

MPLX is a partnership that owns both pipelines and gathering and processing assets with extensive holdings in the Appalachian region. MPLX LP operates as a subsidiary of Marathon Petroleum Corporation. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is headquartered in Findlay, Ohio.

Their asset base is made up of pipeline assets dropped down from Marathon Petroleum, and gathering and processing assets from MarkWest, which it acquired in 2015. MPLX also acquired Andeavor Logistics in July 2019.

MPLX GP LLC acts as the general partner of MPLX LP.

Three key data points gauge any dividend equity or fund, such as MPLX LP:

(1) Price

(2) Dividends

(3) Returns

Those three basic keys best tell whether any company has made, is making, and will make money.

MPLX Price

MPLX’s price per share was $32.49 after Friday’s market close.  One year ago its price was $27.84 So, MPLX’s share price rose by $4.65 or about 17% in the past year.

If MPLX’s stock trades in the range of $25.00 to $40.00 this next year, its recent $32.49 share price might rise by $2.51 to reach $35.00 by next year. My $2.51 upside estimate is $3.00  under the median of annual price target upsides projected by 12 analysts tracking MPLX stock prices for brokers.

MPLX Dividends

MPLX’s most recently declared quarterly dividend of $0.705 per share was paid August 4th to shareholders on record as of July  24th.

Since January 2013 MPLX has paid quarterly dividends, increasing annually. The current forward-looking annual dividend of $2.82 casts an annual yield 8.68% as of yesterday’s $32.49 share price.

MPLX Returns

Adding the $2.82 MPLX annual dividend to my estimated one-year price upside estimate of $2.51 shows a $5.33 potential gross gain, per share, to be reduced by any costs to trade MPLX shares.

At Friday's $32.49 closing price, a little over $1000 would buy 31 shares.

A $10 broker fee (if charged) would be paid half at purchase and half at sale and might cost us $0.32 per share.

Subtract that maybe $0.32 brokerage cost from my estimated $5.39 gross gain estimate per share results in a net gain of $5.07 X 31 shares = $157.17 for a 15.5% net gain including a 8.68% forward-looking annual dividend yield.

Over the next year our $1K investment in MPLX LP shares could generate $86.80 in cash dividends. Of course, a single share MPLX stock bought at Friday's $32.49 price is nearly three times less than the dividend income from our $1000.00 investment.

So, by my dogcatcher ideal, this is a positive time to acquire MPLX shares based on their forward looking dividends for the year 2022. The forecast annual dividend from $1K invested is 2.67 times greater than Friday’s single share price. Consider yourself alerted. Now is the time.

All of the estimates above are speculation based on the past history of MPLX LP. Only time and money invested in this stock will determine its market value.

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