JPMorgan Chase & Co. Trims Holdings in Sunoco LP $SUN

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered its stake in shares of Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) by 42.5% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 443,616 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 328,360 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in Sunoco were worth $22,185,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Uhlmann Price Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of Sunoco by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Uhlmann Price Securities LLC now owns 9,036 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $452,000 after acquiring an additional 250 shares during the last quarter. Alpine Associates Management Inc. purchased a new position in Sunoco during the third quarter worth about $223,000. Caprock Group LLC acquired a new position in Sunoco in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,126,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Sunoco by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 51,957 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $2,598,000 after buying an additional 1,429 shares during the period. Finally, Alps Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Sunoco by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 24,089,484 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,204,715,000 after buying an additional 599,655 shares during the last quarter. 24.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Sunoco Stock Performance

Shares of Sunoco stock opened at $63.72 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.07 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The business has a 50-day moving average of $57.31 and a 200 day moving average of $53.99. Sunoco LP has a 12 month low of $47.98 and a 12 month high of $63.87.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The oil and gas company reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.64 by ($1.55). Sunoco had a return on equity of 10.76% and a net margin of 2.01%.The business had revenue of $8.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.65 billion. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 63.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.75 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Sunoco LP will post 10.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Sunoco Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 6th were given a $0.9317 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 6th. This represents a $3.73 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.8%. This is a boost from Sunoco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. Sunoco’s dividend payout ratio is 164.32%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on SUN shares. Wall Street Zen cut Sunoco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 14th. Raymond James Financial raised Sunoco from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $70.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Sunoco from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Barclays set a $63.00 price objective on shares of Sunoco in a report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Sunoco from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.17.

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.