Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Saturday.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company set a $65.00 target price on shares of Sunoco and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Zacks Research raised shares of Sunoco to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 1st. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Sunoco from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $57.00 target price on shares of Sunoco in a report on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Sunoco from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and five have given a Buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $65.00.

Sunoco Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE SUN opened at $57.07 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $54.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $53.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.48 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a quick ratio of 2.50, a current ratio of 3.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.33. Sunoco has a 52-week low of $47.98 and a 52-week high of $59.88.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The oil and gas company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.54 by ($0.90). The company had revenue of $6.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.59 billion. Sunoco had a net margin of 2.61% and a return on equity of 13.94%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.26) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Sunoco will post 10.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sunoco Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 19th. Investors of record on Friday, February 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.9317 per share. This is a positive change from Sunoco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. This represents a $3.73 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.5%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 6th. Sunoco’s dividend payout ratio is 125.60%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SUN. Alps Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Sunoco by 2.6% during 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 last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in Sunoco by 13.3% in the third 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 acquiring an additional 374,396 shares during the last quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC lifted 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 valued at $95,862,000 after acquiring an additional 32,866 shares during the last quarter. Cooperman Leon G grew its position in Sunoco by 10.2% in the third quarter. Cooperman Leon G now owns 1,620,000 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $81,016,000 after acquiring an additional 150,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Neuberger Berman Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Sunoco by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 713,303 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $35,672,000 after purchasing an additional 43,034 shares during the last quarter. 24.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.