Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) Receives $67.83 Average PT from Brokerages

Shares of Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eight brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $67.8333.

Several research analysts recently commented on SUN shares. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Sunoco from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Sunoco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Sunoco from $66.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 24th. Raymond James Financial raised shares of Sunoco from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $70.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Sunoco from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sunoco

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of 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. Alps Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 766,781 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in Sunoco by 60.5% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,639,420 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $85,922,000 after acquiring an additional 617,700 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its holdings in Sunoco by 13.3% during the 3rd quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 3,179,502 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $159,007,000 after acquiring an additional 374,396 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp increased its position in Sunoco by 1,562.3% during the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 217,855 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $11,418,000 after purchasing an additional 204,749 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 24.29% of the company’s stock.

Sunoco Stock Performance

Shares of Sunoco stock opened at $64.82 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $62.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $56.25. Sunoco has a 52 week low of $47.98 and a 52 week high of $67.82. The company has a market capitalization of $13.28 billion, a PE ratio of 28.56 and a beta of 0.48.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The oil and gas company reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.64 by ($1.55). The business had revenue of $8.60 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.65 billion. Sunoco had a return on equity of 10.76% and a net margin of 2.01%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 63.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.75 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Sunoco will post 10.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Sunoco Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 6th were given a dividend of $0.9317 per share. This is a boost from Sunoco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 6th. This represents a $3.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.7%. Sunoco’s dividend payout ratio is presently 163.88%.

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.