London Co. of Virginia Decreases Stake in Murphy USA Inc. $MUSA

London Co. of Virginia lowered its position in Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) by 14.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 170,315 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 28,919 shares during the quarter. London Co. of Virginia owned about 0.92% of Murphy USA worth $68,730,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its holdings in Murphy USA by 82.4% during the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 62 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Huntington National Bank grew its holdings in Murphy USA by 106.7% during the 4th quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 62 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Ameriflex Group Inc. purchased a new position in Murphy USA during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Murphy USA by 423.1% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 68 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC grew its holdings in Murphy USA by 317.6% during the 3rd quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 71 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.81% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Murphy USA from $600.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Wall Street Zen lowered Murphy USA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 30th. Weiss Ratings lowered Murphy USA from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on Murphy USA in a report on Thursday, March 26th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $539.00 target price for the company. Finally, Zacks Research raised Murphy USA from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Murphy USA has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $515.14.

Murphy USA Stock Down 2.9%

Shares of NYSE MUSA opened at $569.70 on Wednesday. Murphy USA Inc. has a 12 month low of $345.23 and a 12 month high of $636.04. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.69, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.30. The business has a 50-day moving average of $542.98 and a 200-day moving average of $464.79.

Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The specialty retailer reported $7.28 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.37 by $1.91. The company had revenue of $4.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.70 billion. Murphy USA had a return on equity of 91.05% and a net margin of 2.81%.Murphy USA’s quarterly revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.63 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Murphy USA Inc. will post 32.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Murphy USA Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 18th were paid a $0.64 dividend. This is an increase from Murphy USA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.63. This represents a $2.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 18th. Murphy USA’s payout ratio is currently 8.85%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Murphy USA news, SVP Scott G. Woodward sold 158 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.50, for a total value of $94,879.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 476 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $285,838. This represents a 24.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Robert Madison Murphy sold 41,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $596.96, for a total value of $24,773,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 342,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,286,875.52. This represents a 10.82% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 46,225 shares of company stock valued at $27,363,392 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 9.02% of the company’s stock.

About Murphy USA

Murphy USA is a leading downstream marketer of gasoline, diesel and convenience store products in the United States. Headquartered in El Dorado, Arkansas, the company was originally established as part of Murphy Oil Corporation and was spun off as an independent public entity in 2013. Since its separation, Murphy USA has focused on retail fueling services and convenience offerings designed to deliver value and convenience to consumers.

The company’s primary operations center on two retail formats.