Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. Reduces Position in Murphy USA Inc. $MUSA

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) by 14.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,368 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 904 shares during the quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Murphy USA were worth $2,166,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in Murphy USA by 318.6% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 424,818 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $164,940,000 after buying an additional 323,331 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Murphy USA by 0.4% in the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 298,828 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $116,029,000 after buying an additional 1,097 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Murphy USA by 66.0% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 203,064 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $78,842,000 after buying an additional 80,702 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in Murphy USA by 3.9% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 188,664 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $73,251,000 after buying an additional 7,145 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in Murphy USA by 676.7% in the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 170,215 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $69,243,000 after buying an additional 148,301 shares during the last quarter. 80.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Murphy USA Stock Down 0.8%

NYSE:MUSA opened at $592.15 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.95 billion, a PE ratio of 20.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.36. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $472.53 and a 200-day moving average of $423.55. Murphy USA Inc. has a 52 week low of $345.23 and a 52 week high of $605.00. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.24.

Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The specialty retailer reported $7.28 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.37 by $1.91. The company had revenue of $4.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.70 billion. Murphy USA had a return on equity of 91.05% and a net margin of 2.81%.The business’s revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.63 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Murphy USA Inc. will post 29.66 EPS for the current year.

Murphy USA Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 23rd were given a dividend of $0.63 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 23rd. This represents a $2.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Murphy USA’s payout ratio is currently 8.71%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on MUSA. Zacks Research raised Murphy USA from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Bank of America raised Murphy USA from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $350.00 to $550.00 in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Murphy USA from $560.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on Murphy USA from $510.00 to $517.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Murphy USA from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Murphy USA currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $503.71.

Insider Buying and Selling at Murphy USA

In other news, SVP Renee M. Bacon sold 2,844 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $388.61, for a total transaction of $1,105,206.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 3,083 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,198,084.63. The trade was a 47.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Jeanne Linder Phillips sold 1,155 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $395.19, for a total value of $456,444.45. Following the transaction, the director owned 1,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $609,778.17. This represents a 42.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 10,919 shares of company stock valued at $4,490,690. 9.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.