Meeder Asset Management Inc. Takes $4.24 Million Position in Murphy USA Inc. $MUSA

Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 7,864 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $4,238,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WINTON GROUP Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Murphy USA during the fourth quarter worth about $6,874,000. Recurrent Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Murphy USA by 23.2% in the first quarter. Recurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 146,119 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $71,986,000 after buying an additional 27,513 shares in the last quarter. Evergreen Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Murphy USA in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,333,000. Millennium Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Murphy USA during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,029,000. Finally, VELA Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Murphy USA by 45.4% during the 4th quarter. VELA Investment Management LLC now owns 9,765 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $3,940,000 after buying an additional 3,051 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.81% of the company’s stock.

Murphy USA Trading Down 1.7%

NYSE:MUSA opened at $576.04 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.77, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.92. Murphy USA Inc. has a 52 week low of $349.83 and a 52 week high of $636.04. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $579.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $516.83. The company has a market capitalization of $10.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 0.28.

Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The specialty retailer reported $11.27 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.95 by $1.32. Murphy USA had a net margin of 2.87% and a return on equity of 96.01%. The company had revenue of $6.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $7.36 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 36.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Murphy USA Inc. will post 33.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Murphy USA Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 24th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 24th. This is a positive change from Murphy USA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. Murphy USA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.80%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Murphy USA news, SVP Renee M. Bacon sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $529.44, for a total transaction of $555,912.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 3,083 shares in the company, valued at $1,632,263.52. This represents a 25.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Diane N. Landen sold 3,000 shares of Murphy USA stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $547.25, for a total transaction of $1,641,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 53,841 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,464,487.25. This trade represents a 5.28% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 9.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on MUSA. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Murphy USA from $655.00 to $633.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 7th. KeyCorp increased their price target on Murphy USA from $600.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Zacks Research lowered Murphy USA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Murphy USA from $520.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Murphy USA from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $606.89.

Murphy USA Company Profile

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.