Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) Receives $66.17 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $66.1667.

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Sunoco from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. Zacks Research downgraded Sunoco from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Weiss Ratings lowered Sunoco from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Raymond James Financial upgraded Sunoco from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $70.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Sunoco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 14th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sunoco

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SUN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 1,182,662 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. raised its stake 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 last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised 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 during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Sunoco by 13.3% in the third quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 3,179,502 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $159,007,000 after purchasing an additional 374,396 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp boosted its position in shares of Sunoco by 1,562.3% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 217,855 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $11,418,000 after buying an additional 204,749 shares during the last quarter. 24.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Sunoco Trading Down 0.5%

SUN opened at $63.69 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $59.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $54.62. Sunoco has a 1-year low of $47.98 and a 1-year high of $65.24. The company has a market cap of $13.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.06 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 17th. The oil and gas company reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.64 by ($1.55). Sunoco had a return on equity of 10.76% and a net margin of 2.01%.The company had revenue of $8.60 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.65 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.75 EPS. Sunoco’s revenue for the quarter was up 63.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Sunoco will post 10.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sunoco Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 6th were paid a $0.9317 dividend. This represents a $3.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.9%. This is a positive change from Sunoco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 6th. Sunoco’s payout ratio is 164.32%.

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.