Heartland Advisors Inc. Purchases New Stake in Murphy USA Inc. $MUSA

Heartland Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 17,732 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $9,555,000.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Huntington National Bank raised its stake in shares of Murphy USA by 106.7% during the fourth quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 62 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Murphy USA by 423.1% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 68 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. WPG Advisers LLC grew its stake in shares of Murphy USA by 148.5% in the fourth quarter. WPG Advisers LLC now owns 82 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Murphy USA in the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, Root Financial Partners LLC increased its holdings in Murphy USA by 82.5% during the 1st quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 73 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.81% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MUSA has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Capital One Financial started coverage on Murphy USA in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. They set an “overweight” rating and a $710.00 price target for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price 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. Jefferies Financial Group raised Murphy USA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $550.00 to $625.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Murphy USA from $600.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $619.00 target price on shares of Murphy USA in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Murphy USA presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $606.89.

Murphy USA Trading Down 0.4%

NYSE:MUSA opened at $567.65 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.29, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.77, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.54. Murphy USA Inc. has a one year low of $349.83 and a one year high of $636.04. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $576.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $519.25.

Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The specialty retailer reported $11.27 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $7.36 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 36.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Murphy USA Inc. will post 33.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Murphy USA Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 24th will be paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 24th. This is a positive change from Murphy USA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. Murphy USA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.80%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Renee M. Bacon sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was 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 directly owned 3,083 shares in the company, valued at $1,632,263.52. This trade represents a 25.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Diane N. Landen sold 3,000 shares of Murphy USA stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 53,841 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,464,487.25. This represents a 5.28% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 5,016 shares of company stock valued at $2,750,098. 9.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.