Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. Sells 22,263 Shares of Sunoco LP $SUN

Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. lowered its position in Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) by 19.7% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 91,000 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 22,263 shares during the period. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Sunoco were worth $4,551,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Alps Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Sunoco by 2.6% during the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 24,089,484 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,204,715,000 after buying an additional 599,655 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its stake in Sunoco by 33.7% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 593,970 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $29,704,000 after buying an additional 149,732 shares during the last quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Sunoco by 58.2% in the third quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 228,429 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $11,424,000 after buying an additional 84,000 shares during the period. Energy Income Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Sunoco by 4.1% in the second quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 1,883,992 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $100,963,000 after buying an additional 73,696 shares during the period. Finally, Neuberger Berman Group LLC boosted its position in Sunoco by 6.4% during the third quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 713,303 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $35,672,000 after acquiring an additional 43,034 shares during the last quarter. 24.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SUN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays set a $63.00 price target on Sunoco in a report on Friday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Sunoco from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Wall Street Zen cut Sunoco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 14th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Sunoco from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Sunoco from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Sunoco has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.17.

Sunoco Trading Down 0.5%

SUN opened at $63.69 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $59.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $54.62. Sunoco LP has a 1-year low of $47.98 and a 1-year high of $65.24. The company has a market cap of $13.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.06 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 17th. The oil and gas company reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.64 by ($1.55). The company 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%.Sunoco’s revenue for the quarter was up 63.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.75 EPS. Analysts predict that Sunoco LP will post 10.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sunoco Increases Dividend

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

Sunoco 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.