Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.65

Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, August 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 24th will be paid a dividend of 0.65 per share by the specialty retailer on Thursday, September 3rd. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 24th. This is a 1.6% increase from Murphy USA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64.

Murphy USA has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.5%annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 4 years. Murphy USA has a payout ratio of 9.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Murphy USA to earn $29.58 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 8.7%.

Murphy USA Stock Performance

Shares of MUSA stock opened at $563.88 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $577.89 and its 200-day moving average price is $513.65. The stock has a market cap of $10.41 billion, a PE ratio of 17.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 0.28. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.77. Murphy USA has a 12 month low of $349.83 and a 12 month high of $636.04.

Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The specialty retailer reported $11.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $6.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $7.36 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 36.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Murphy USA will post 33.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on MUSA. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Murphy USA from $655.00 to $633.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Murphy USA from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Murphy USA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $550.00 to $625.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Zacks Research cut shares of Murphy USA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on Murphy USA from $600.00 to $625.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $606.89.

About Murphy USA

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.