Analysts Set Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) PT at $77.12

Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the ten research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $79.00.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on SUN. Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $80.00 price target on shares of Sunoco in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Mizuho set a $83.00 price objective on shares of Sunoco in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Sunoco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Sunoco from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Sunoco from $73.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th.

Sunoco Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SUN opened at $70.58 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $69.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $65.89. Sunoco has a fifty-two week low of $47.98 and a fifty-two week high of $78.11. The company has a market capitalization of $14.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.62 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.40.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 19.62% and a net margin of 2.88%.The company had revenue of $14.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.33 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 164.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Sunoco will post 11.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sunoco Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 19th. Investors of record on Friday, August 7th will be issued a $1.0023 dividend. This represents a $4.01 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 7th. This is a positive change from Sunoco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. Sunoco’s dividend payout ratio is 87.61%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sunoco

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Sunoco by 266.6% during 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. boosted its position in shares of Sunoco by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 24,856,265 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,302,717,000 after purchasing an additional 766,781 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of Sunoco by 60.5% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Recurrent Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of 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 valued at $66,781,000 after purchasing an additional 349,254 shares during the period. Finally, Infrastructure Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of 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 valued at $63,212,000 after purchasing an additional 247,569 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 24.29% of the company’s stock.

Sunoco Company Profile

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.