Raymond James & Associates Raises Stake in Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN)

Raymond James & Associates grew its stake in Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN – Get Rating) by 5.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 91,915 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,007 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates owned about 0.09% of Sunoco worth $3,962,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Belpointe Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Sunoco during the fourth quarter worth $78,000. UBS Group AG grew its position in shares of Sunoco by 27.7% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 323,564 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $13,946,000 after acquiring an additional 70,145 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Sunoco by 44.7% in the 4th quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 21,032 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $907,000 after purchasing an additional 6,496 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Sunoco by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 18,708 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $806,000 after purchasing an additional 1,039 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC raised its holdings in Sunoco by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 128,297 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $5,530,000 after purchasing an additional 1,355 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 16.16% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Sunoco from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 21st. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Sunoco from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 21st. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Sunoco from $48.00 to $51.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 18th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Sunoco in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price objective on Sunoco from $48.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $50.29.

Sunoco Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE SUN opened at $43.84 on Thursday. Sunoco LP has a 12-month low of $34.26 and a 12-month high of $48.59. The stock has a market cap of $4.40 billion, a PE ratio of 11.60 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.47. The company has a 50-day moving average of $44.04 and a 200 day moving average of $44.33.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 2nd. The oil and gas company reported $1.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.21 by $0.20. Sunoco had a net margin of 1.56% and a return on equity of 41.03%. The company had revenue of $5.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.01 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.32 EPS. Sunoco’s revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Sunoco LP will post 4.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sunoco Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, May 8th were paid a dividend of $0.842 per share. This represents a $3.37 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.68%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 5th. This is a boost from Sunoco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. Sunoco’s dividend payout ratio is currently 89.15%.

Sunoco Profile

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Sunoco LP engages in the management and distribution of fuel products. It operates through Fuel Distribution and Marketing and All Other segments. The Fuel Distribution and Marketing segment supplies fuels and other petroleum products, which it supplies to third-party dealers and distributors, independent operators of commission agent, other commercial consumers of motor fuel and to retail locations.