L.M. Kohn & Company Raises Stock Holdings in Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA)

L.M. Kohn & Company increased its stake in shares of Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) by 36.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 853 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after buying an additional 230 shares during the period. L.M. Kohn & Company’s holdings in Murphy USA were worth $420,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its stake in 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 during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its stake in 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 buying an additional 1,005 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its stake in 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 buying an additional 288 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Murphy USA by 777.8% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 79 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Murphy USA by 34.2% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 863 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $405,000 after buying an additional 220 shares during the last quarter. 80.81% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on MUSA shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Murphy USA from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $415.00 to $435.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. StockNews.com cut Murphy USA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $495.33.

Murphy USA Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of MUSA stock opened at $547.80 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $501.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $491.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.19, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.09 billion, a PE ratio of 22.60 and a beta of 0.75. Murphy USA Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $350.55 and a fifty-two week high of $561.08.

Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The specialty retailer reported $7.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.64 by $0.56. The business had revenue of $5.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.54 billion. Murphy USA had a return on equity of 62.73% and a net margin of 2.48%. The company’s revenue was down 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $7.69 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Murphy USA Inc. will post 23.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Murphy USA Increases Dividend

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

Murphy USA Profile

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.