Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) Price Target Raised to $73.00

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) had its target price boosted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report released on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the oil and gas company’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on SUN. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Sunoco from $67.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Sunoco from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Sunoco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 14th. Barclays set a $63.00 target price on shares of Sunoco in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised shares of Sunoco from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $70.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, January 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $67.83.

Sunoco Stock Up 1.6%

SUN opened at $66.53 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $61.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $55.64. Sunoco has a 52 week low of $47.98 and a 52 week high of $67.82. The stock has a market cap of $13.63 billion, a PE ratio of 29.31 and a beta of 0.49.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) last posted 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 firm had revenue of $8.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.75 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Sunoco will post 10.65 earnings per share 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 $0.9317 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 6th. This represents a $3.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.6%. This is an increase from Sunoco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. Sunoco’s dividend payout ratio is 164.32%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sunoco

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SUN. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in Sunoco by 6.4% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 159,128 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $9,239,000 after acquiring an additional 9,592 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its position in shares of Sunoco by 7.2% in the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 35,902 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,924,000 after purchasing an additional 2,416 shares during the period. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. lifted its position in shares of Sunoco by 13.1% in the 2nd quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 14,976 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $803,000 after purchasing an additional 1,739 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Sunoco by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 50,528 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $2,708,000 after purchasing an additional 1,005 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Neuberger Berman Group LLC increased its position in shares of Sunoco by 4.0% during the second quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 670,269 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $35,920,000 after buying an additional 25,757 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 24.29% of the company’s stock.

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.