MPLX recently hiked its quarterly payout by 12.5% to $1.0765. That brings the annualized distribution to $4.31 and the forward yield to 7.71%. For comparison, that is higher than peers like Kinder Morgan (5.2%) and ONEOK (4.8%). The stock trades at roughly 9.2x forward EV/EBITDA, which is a slight premium to the midstream average. The justification seems to be capital discipline. Unlike Energy Transfer which has issues with per-unit value creation, MPLX has reduced its unit count by about 8% since 2019 through buybacks. A large portion of their revenue is tied to Marathon Petroleum (MPC). While that is a concentration risk, they have minimum volume commitments in place. This means MPC pays them even if volume usage drops, which stabilizes cash flow. The payout ratio is currently 58.6%, leaving a buffer for their projected 8-12% annual distribution growth through 2030. They are also investing in natural gas infrastructure in the Permian and Marcellus basins to capture more volume. Keep in mind this is an MLP, so it issues a K-1 tax form rather than a standard 1099.