Maverick Capital Ltd. Decreases Position in Murphy USA Inc. $MUSA

Maverick Capital Ltd. decreased its position in Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) by 87.9% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,332 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 9,691 shares during the quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd.’s holdings in Murphy USA were worth $658,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in MUSA. Huntington National Bank increased its position in shares of Murphy USA by 106.7% in the fourth 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. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Murphy USA by 423.1% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 68 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new stake in Murphy USA in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. WPG Advisers LLC grew its stake in Murphy USA by 148.5% in the 4th quarter. WPG Advisers LLC now owns 82 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Murphy USA during the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.81% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Murphy USA news, SVP Renee M. Bacon sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $529.44, for a total value of $555,912.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 3,083 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,632,263.52. This trade represents a 25.41% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Robert Madison Murphy sold 41,500 shares of Murphy USA stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The shares were 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 owned 342,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $204,286,875.52. This trade represents a 10.82% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 46,225 shares of company stock valued at $27,363,392 in the last three months. Company insiders own 9.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Murphy USA from $600.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Zacks Research cut shares of Murphy USA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Murphy USA from $600.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Murphy USA from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 27th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Murphy USA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $550.00 to $625.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $585.11.

Murphy USA Stock Down 1.5%

MUSA stock opened at $600.98 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $568.04 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $502.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.24, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.77, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 0.30. Murphy USA Inc. has a one year low of $345.23 and a one year high of $636.04.

Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) last issued its quarterly 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. Murphy USA had a return on equity of 91.05% and a net margin of 2.81%.The company had revenue of $4.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.70 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.63 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Murphy USA Inc. will post 32.58 EPS for the current year.

Murphy USA Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Investors of record on Monday, May 18th were given a dividend of $0.64 per share. This represents a $2.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. This is a boost from Murphy USA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.63. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 18th. Murphy USA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.85%.

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.