Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) Shares Up 4.7%

Shares of Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) shot up 4.7% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $53.90 and last traded at $53.53. 524,081 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 14% from the average session volume of 461,702 shares. The stock had previously closed at $51.13.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on SUN. Barclays boosted their price target on Sunoco from $57.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Citigroup downgraded Sunoco from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Sunoco from $53.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Sunoco from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Sunoco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.71.

Sunoco Stock Up 5.6 %

The firm has a 50-day moving average of $60.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $56.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.05 and a beta of 1.27.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The oil and gas company reported ($1.50) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by ($2.46). Sunoco had a net margin of 1.71% and a return on equity of 37.91%. The firm had revenue of $5.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.42 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.42 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Sunoco LP will post 4.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Sunoco Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 7th were paid a $0.842 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 6th. This represents a $3.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.24%. Sunoco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 92.58%.

Institutional Trading of Sunoco

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Sunoco during the 1st quarter worth about $55,000. Brookstone Capital Management boosted its stake in shares of Sunoco by 6.7% during the 1st quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 10,684 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $644,000 after acquiring an additional 671 shares in the last quarter. Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC bought a new stake in shares of Sunoco during the 1st quarter worth about $682,000. F&V Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Sunoco by 10.0% during the 1st quarter. F&V Capital Management LLC now owns 8,250 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $497,000 after acquiring an additional 750 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY boosted its stake in shares of Sunoco by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 437,171 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $26,357,000 after acquiring an additional 17,757 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 24.29% of the company’s stock.

About Sunoco

Sunoco LP, together with its subsidiaries, distributes and retails motor fuels in the United States. It operates through two segments: Fuel Distribution and Marketing, and All Other. The Fuel Distribution and Marketing segment purchases motor fuel, as well as other petroleum products, such as propane and lubricating oil from independent refiners and oil companies and supplies it to company-operated retail stores, independently operated commission agents, and retail stores, as well as other commercial customers, including unbranded retail stores, other fuel distributors, school districts, municipalities, and other industrial customers.