JPMorgan Chase & Co. Boosts Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) Price Target to $63.00

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) had its price objective upped by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $61.00 to $63.00 in a research note released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the oil and gas company’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Citigroup raised shares of Sunoco from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Sunoco from $61.00 to $60.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Sunoco from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $62.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 7th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Sunoco from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded shares of Sunoco from a neutral rating to a buy rating and cut their target price for the stock from $60.00 to $59.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $62.14.

Sunoco Price Performance

SUN opened at $51.87 on Wednesday. Sunoco has a one year low of $44.26 and a one year high of $64.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $54.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.55 and a beta of 1.30.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The oil and gas company reported $3.85 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.23 by $2.62. Sunoco had a net margin of 3.80% and a return on equity of 41.76%. The business had revenue of $6.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.63 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.78 earnings per share. Sunoco’s revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Sunoco will post 7.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sunoco Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 19th. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th were issued a dividend of $0.8756 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $3.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.75%. Sunoco’s payout ratio is 77.95%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sunoco

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SUN. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. raised its holdings in shares of Sunoco by 26,345.6% during the second quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 1,351,368 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $76,406,000 after acquiring an additional 1,346,258 shares during the period. Blackstone Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Sunoco by 58.0% during the fourth quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 2,387,608 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $143,089,000 after acquiring an additional 876,452 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Sunoco by 176.6% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 700,229 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $39,591,000 after acquiring an additional 447,072 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Sunoco by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,904,735 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $174,081,000 after acquiring an additional 275,875 shares during the period. Finally, Adams Asset Advisors LLC increased its stake in Sunoco by 82.3% in the 2nd quarter. Adams Asset Advisors LLC now owns 571,538 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $32,315,000 after buying an additional 258,103 shares during the last quarter. 24.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Sunoco

Sunoco LP, together with its subsidiaries, distributes and retails motor fuels in the United States. It operates through two segments: Fuel Distribution and Marketing, and All Other. The Fuel Distribution and Marketing segment purchases motor fuel, as well as other petroleum products, such as propane and lubricating oil from independent refiners and oil companies and supplies it to company-operated retail stores, independently operated commission agents, and retail stores, as well as other commercial customers, including unbranded retail stores, other fuel distributors, school districts, municipalities, and other industrial customers.