State of Alaska Department of Revenue Sells 110 Shares of Murphy USA Inc. $MUSA

State of Alaska Department of Revenue cut its position in Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,020 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 110 shares during the quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue’s holdings in Murphy USA were worth $821,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Independent Advisor Alliance raised its position in Murphy USA by 4.9% in the first quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 489 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $230,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its position in shares of Murphy USA by 0.7% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 4,473 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $2,101,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Fortune Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Murphy USA by 1.6% during the second quarter. Fortune Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,821 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $741,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Applied Capital LLC FL raised its position in shares of Murphy USA by 5.9% during the first quarter. Applied Capital LLC FL now owns 557 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $262,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp raised its position in shares of Murphy USA by 18.7% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 203 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $95,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. 80.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Murphy USA Trading Down 4.0%

NYSE MUSA opened at $379.61 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $384.54 and a 200 day simple moving average of $426.12. Murphy USA Inc. has a one year low of $345.23 and a one year high of $561.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.72 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.20, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.39.

Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The specialty retailer reported $7.36 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.82 by $0.54. Murphy USA had a return on equity of 64.63% and a net margin of 2.52%.The business had revenue of $5.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.17 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $6.92 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Murphy USA Inc. will post 26.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Murphy USA Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 4th. Investors of record on Monday, August 25th were paid a dividend of $0.53 per share. This is an increase from Murphy USA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 25th. Murphy USA’s payout ratio is 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Robert Madison Murphy acquired 5,000 shares of Murphy USA stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $367.01 per share, with a total value of $1,835,050.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 389,172 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $142,830,015.72. The trade was a 1.30% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Malynda K. West sold 1,859 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $386.22, for a total value of $717,982.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 117,389 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,337,979.58. This trade represents a 1.56% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 10.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MUSA. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and set a $480.00 price objective on shares of Murphy USA in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Murphy USA in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Murphy USA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $350.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Murphy USA from $520.00 to $440.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Murphy USA from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $483.17.

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.