Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) Hits New 1-Year High on Analyst Upgrade

Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) shares reached a new 52-week high on Wednesday after Mizuho raised their price target on the stock from $66.00 to $75.00. Mizuho currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Sunoco traded as high as $68.45 and last traded at $67.65, with a volume of 244975 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $66.89.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Zacks Research raised shares of Sunoco from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Sunoco from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Wall Street Zen cut Sunoco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 14th. Barclays set a $63.00 target price on Sunoco in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Sunoco from $66.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.33.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SUN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Sunoco by 266.6% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,626,278 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $85,233,000 after buying an additional 1,182,662 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 766,781 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Sunoco by 60.5% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,639,420 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $85,922,000 after buying an additional 617,700 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $159,007,000 after buying an additional 374,396 shares during the period. Finally, M&T Bank Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Sunoco by 1,562.3% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 217,855 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $11,418,000 after buying an additional 204,749 shares during the period. 24.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Sunoco Stock Performance

The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $64.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.18. The company has a market capitalization of $13.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.74 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 0.78.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The oil and gas company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.64 by ($1.55). Sunoco had a return on equity of 10.76% and a net margin of 2.01%.The firm had revenue of $8.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.75 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 63.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Sunoco LP will post 7.83 EPS for the current year.

Sunoco Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 20th. Investors of record on Friday, May 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.9899 per share. This is an increase from Sunoco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $3.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 8th. Sunoco’s dividend payout ratio is 164.32%.

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.