5,612 Shares in Murphy USA Inc. $MUSA Purchased by Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 5,612 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $3,024,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Huntington National Bank raised its holdings in shares of Murphy USA by 106.7% in the 4th quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 62 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Murphy USA by 423.1% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 68 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Murphy USA by 82.5% during the first quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 73 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. WPG Advisers LLC grew its position in 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 buying an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Murphy USA in the fourth quarter worth approximately $33,000. 80.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Murphy USA Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of Murphy USA stock opened at $569.26 on Friday. Murphy USA Inc. has a 1 year low of $349.83 and a 1 year high of $636.04. The company has a market cap of $10.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.67 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. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $578.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $514.04.

Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The specialty retailer reported $11.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.95 by $1.32. The business had revenue of $6.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.03 billion. Murphy USA had a net margin of 2.87% and a return on equity of 96.01%. The firm’s revenue was up 36.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $7.36 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Murphy USA Inc. will post 33.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Murphy USA Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced 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. This is an increase from Murphy USA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 24th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Murphy USA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.80%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Murphy USA

In related news, Director Diane N. Landen sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $547.25, for a total transaction of $1,641,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 53,841 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,464,487.25. This trade represents a 5.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Renee M. Bacon sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $529.44, for a total value of $555,912.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 3,083 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,632,263.52. This represents a 25.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 9.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MUSA has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Murphy USA from $600.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Murphy USA from $520.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, July 20th. Bank of America boosted their target price on Murphy USA from $600.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Murphy USA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $550.00 to $625.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Murphy USA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $606.89.

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.