JPMorgan Chase & Co. Cuts Stock Position in Sunoco LP $SUN

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lessened its holdings in shares of Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) by 42.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 443,616 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 328,360 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned about 0.22% of Sunoco worth $22,185,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Sunoco in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Ancora Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Sunoco during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Ulland Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Sunoco in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $100,000. State of Wyoming purchased a new position in Sunoco in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $111,000. Finally, Caitlin John LLC acquired a new position in shares of Sunoco in the third quarter worth $120,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 24.29% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SUN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Sunoco from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Wall Street Zen cut Sunoco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 14th. Raymond James Financial upgraded Sunoco from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $70.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, January 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Sunoco from $66.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays set a $63.00 price objective on Sunoco in a research note on Friday, February 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Sunoco presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $67.83.

Sunoco Price Performance

Shares of SUN opened at $65.46 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.84 and a beta of 0.49. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.49. 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.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The oil and gas company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.75 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 63.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Sunoco LP will post 10.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sunoco Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 6th were given a dividend of $0.9317 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 6th. This represents a $3.73 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.7%. This is an increase from Sunoco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. Sunoco’s payout ratio is currently 164.32%.

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.