Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) Hits New 1-Year High – Still a Buy?

Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $63.59 and last traded at $61.99, with a volume of 457977 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $62.54.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on SUN shares. Raymond James Financial upgraded Sunoco from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $70.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, January 5th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Sunoco from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Sunoco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 14th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Sunoco from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Sunoco from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Sunoco has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.17.

Sunoco Stock Performance

The stock’s fifty day moving average is $56.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $53.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.22 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 1.38.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 17th. The oil and gas company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.64 by ($1.55). The firm had revenue of $8.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.65 billion. Sunoco had a return on equity of 10.76% and a net margin of 2.01%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 63.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.75 EPS. Analysts forecast that Sunoco LP will post 10.65 earnings per share for the current 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 dividend of $0.9317 per share. This is a boost from Sunoco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 6th. This represents a $3.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.0%. Sunoco’s payout ratio is 164.32%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sunoco

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SUN. Alps Advisors Inc. increased 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 buying an additional 766,781 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Sunoco by 13.3% in the 3rd 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. Energy Income Partners LLC grew its stake in Sunoco by 1.7% in the third quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 1,916,858 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $95,862,000 after purchasing an additional 32,866 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in Sunoco by 60.5% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,639,420 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $85,922,000 after buying an additional 617,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Sunoco by 266.6% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,626,278 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $85,233,000 after buying an additional 1,182,662 shares in the last quarter. 24.29% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Sunoco Company Profile

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.