8,307 Shares in Murphy USA Inc. $MUSA Bought by Callan Family Office LLC

Callan Family Office LLC acquired a new position in shares of Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 8,307 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $4,476,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Murphy USA in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $915,734,000. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Murphy USA by 149.9% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 507,418 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $204,753,000 after purchasing an additional 304,354 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in Murphy USA by 676.7% in the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 170,215 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $69,243,000 after purchasing an additional 148,301 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Murphy USA in the 2nd quarter valued at about $78,372,000. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Murphy USA during the 4th quarter worth approximately $50,726,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.81% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MUSA has been the topic of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Murphy USA from $520.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 20th. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Murphy USA from $600.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Capital One Financial initiated coverage on shares of Murphy USA in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. They set an “overweight” rating and a $710.00 target price on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Murphy USA from $655.00 to $633.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Murphy USA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Murphy USA presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $606.89.

Insider Buying and Selling at Murphy USA

In other news, Director Diane N. Landen sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $547.25, for a total value of $1,641,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 53,841 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,464,487.25. This represents a 5.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Renee M. Bacon sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $529.44, for a total transaction of $555,912.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 3,083 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,632,263.52. This trade represents a 25.41% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders sold 5,016 shares of company stock worth $2,750,098. 9.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Murphy USA Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of Murphy USA stock opened at $567.65 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $576.44 and its 200 day moving average is $519.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.48 billion, a PE ratio of 17.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.28. Murphy USA Inc. has a 1 year low of $349.83 and a 1 year high of $636.04. 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 (NYSE:MUSA) last posted its earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $6.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.03 billion. Murphy USA had a net margin of 2.87% and a return on equity of 96.01%. The company’s revenue was up 36.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $7.36 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Murphy USA Inc. will post 33.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Murphy USA Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 24th will be issued a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 24th. This is a boost from Murphy USA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64. Murphy USA’s payout ratio is currently 7.80%.

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.