Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) Receives Consensus Rating of “Buy” from Analysts

Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) has been given an average recommendation of “Buy” by the ten brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $79.00.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on SUN shares. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Sunoco from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Sunoco from $73.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen lowered Sunoco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on Sunoco to $78.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Sunoco from $73.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th.

Sunoco Stock Performance

Shares of Sunoco stock opened at $74.83 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.56 and a beta of 0.41. Sunoco has a 52 week low of $47.98 and a 52 week high of $78.11. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.95. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $72.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $67.73.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The oil and gas company reported $0.94 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.50 by ($1.56). Sunoco had a return on equity of 18.78% and a net margin of 2.88%.The company had revenue of $14.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.33 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 164.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Sunoco will post 9.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sunoco Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 7th were given a dividend of $1.0023 per share. This represents a $4.01 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.4%. This is a positive change from Sunoco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 7th. Sunoco’s dividend payout ratio is presently 88.72%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sunoco

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SUN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Sunoco by 266.6% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,626,278 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $85,233,000 after acquiring an additional 1,182,662 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. raised its position in Sunoco by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 24,856,265 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,302,717,000 after purchasing an additional 766,781 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Sunoco by 60.5% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,639,420 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $85,922,000 after purchasing an additional 617,700 shares during the period. Recurrent Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Sunoco by 51.5% during the 1st quarter. Recurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,027,877 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $66,781,000 after purchasing an additional 349,254 shares during the period. Finally, Infrastructure Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in Sunoco by 34.1% during the 1st quarter. Infrastructure Capital Advisors LLC now owns 972,935 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $63,212,000 after purchasing an additional 247,569 shares during the last quarter. 24.29% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.