Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) Shares Acquired by Fmr LLC

Fmr LLC boosted its position in Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) by 6.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,751,206 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after purchasing an additional 99,253 shares during the period. Fmr LLC owned about 8.65% of Murphy USA worth $863,116,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Murphy USA by 24.3% in the first quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 1,617 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $678,000 after buying an additional 316 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in shares of Murphy USA by 28.4% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 4,546 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $1,906,000 after purchasing an additional 1,005 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its position in shares of Murphy USA by 10.8% in the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 2,952 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $1,229,000 after acquiring an additional 288 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Murphy USA by 777.8% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 79 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Murphy USA by 34.2% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 863 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $405,000 after acquiring an additional 220 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.81% of the company’s stock.

Murphy USA Stock Down 0.3 %

MUSA stock opened at $553.65 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.19, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.41. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $498.51 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $489.08. Murphy USA Inc. has a 1-year low of $350.55 and a 1-year high of $561.08. The firm has a market cap of $11.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.84 and a beta of 0.75.

Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The specialty retailer reported $7.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.64 by $0.56. The company had revenue of $5.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.54 billion. Murphy USA had a return on equity of 62.73% and a net margin of 2.48%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $7.69 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Murphy USA Inc. will post 23.59 EPS for the current year.

Murphy USA Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 4th will be paid a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 4th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.35%. This is a positive change from Murphy USA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. Murphy USA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.92%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MUSA has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Murphy USA from $538.00 to $537.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Murphy USA from $540.00 to $560.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Raymond James raised their price objective on Murphy USA from $530.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Murphy USA from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $415.00 to $435.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Murphy USA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, October 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Murphy USA currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $495.33.

About Murphy USA

Murphy USA Inc engages in marketing of retail motor fuel products and convenience merchandise. The company operates retail stores under the Murphy USA, Murphy Express, and QuickChek brands, as well as operates non-fuel convenience stores. It operates retail gasoline stores principally in the Southeast, Southwest, and Midwest United States.