Sunoco LP $SUN Shares Sold by Hennessy Advisors Inc.

Hennessy Advisors Inc. lessened its stake in Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) by 6.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 145,100 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 9,400 shares during the quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. owned 0.07% of Sunoco worth $7,605,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Alps Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Sunoco by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 24,089,484 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,204,715,000 after buying an additional 599,655 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Sunoco by 13.3% in the 3rd quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 3,179,502 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $159,007,000 after buying an additional 374,396 shares during the period. Energy Income Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Sunoco by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 1,916,858 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $95,862,000 after buying an additional 32,866 shares during the period. Cooperman Leon G lifted its holdings in shares of Sunoco by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. Cooperman Leon G now owns 1,620,000 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $81,016,000 after buying an additional 150,000 shares during the period. Finally, Neuberger Berman Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Sunoco by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 713,303 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $35,672,000 after buying an additional 43,034 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 24.29% of the company’s stock.

Sunoco Stock Performance

NYSE SUN opened at $63.13 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.81 and a beta of 0.48. Sunoco LP has a twelve month low of $47.98 and a twelve month high of $67.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $63.65 and a 200 day moving average of $57.41.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The oil and gas company reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.64 by ($1.55). The business had revenue of $8.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.65 billion. Sunoco had a return on equity of 10.76% and a net margin of 2.01%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 63.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.75 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Sunoco LP will post 10.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sunoco Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 19th. Investors of record on Friday, February 6th were issued a $0.9317 dividend. This represents a $3.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 6th. This is a positive change from Sunoco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. Sunoco’s payout ratio is currently 164.32%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on SUN. Wall Street Zen cut Sunoco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 14th. Zacks Research raised Sunoco from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Sunoco from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Raymond James Financial raised Sunoco from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $70.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Sunoco from $67.00 to $71.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $67.83.

Sunoco Company Profile

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.