Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) Reaches New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $77.32 and last traded at $76.5050, with a volume of 1548 shares. The stock had previously closed at $76.50.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SUN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup boosted their target price on Sunoco from $65.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on Sunoco to $78.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Sunoco in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Mizuho set a $83.00 target price on Sunoco in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Sunoco from $71.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $77.12.

Sunoco Trading Down 0.9%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.40. The stock has a market cap of $15.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.39 and a beta of 0.42. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $68.53 and a 200-day moving average price of $65.25.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The oil and gas company reported $2.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.71 by $1.14. The business had revenue of $10.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.19 billion. Sunoco had a net margin of 3.07% and a return on equity of 17.52%. Sunoco’s quarterly revenue was up 106.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.21 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Sunoco LP will post 8.8 EPS for the current year.

Sunoco Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 19th. Investors of record on Friday, August 7th will be issued a dividend of $1.0023 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 7th. This represents a $4.01 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.3%. This is a positive change from Sunoco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. Sunoco’s payout ratio is 101.28%.

Institutional Trading of Sunoco

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Alps Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Sunoco by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 24,856,265 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,302,717,000 after purchasing an additional 766,781 shares during the last quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC raised its stake in Sunoco by 1.7% in the third quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 1,916,858 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $95,862,000 after buying an additional 32,866 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of Sunoco by 60.5% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,639,420 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $85,922,000 after purchasing an additional 617,700 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Sunoco by 266.6% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,626,278 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $85,233,000 after buying an additional 1,182,662 shares during the period. Finally, Recurrent Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Sunoco by 51.5% during the first quarter. Recurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,027,877 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $66,781,000 after acquiring an additional 349,254 shares in the last quarter. 24.29% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Sunoco

Sunoco LP (NYSE: SUN) is an independent master limited partnership that specializes in the distribution and marketing of transportation fuels and related products. The company operates through two primary segments: wholesale fuel distribution and retail marketing. In wholesale distribution, Sunoco supplies branded fuels to distributors, commercial customers and resellers across the United States. Its retail marketing arm operates a network of company?owned and franchised Sunoco branded service stations and convenience stores, providing gasoline, diesel, ethanol blends and lubricants to consumers.

Sunoco’s product portfolio extends beyond traditional fuels to include biofuels, specialty chemicals and on?road diesel treated to meet ultra?low sulfur requirements.