Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) Cut to “Hold” at Zacks Research

Zacks Research cut shares of Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on SUN. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $57.00 price target on shares of Sunoco in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Raymond James Financial raised shares of Sunoco from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $70.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $65.00 price target on shares of Sunoco and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Sunoco from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 31st. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Sunoco from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $65.00.

Sunoco Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of SUN opened at $57.90 on Monday. Sunoco has a 52 week low of $47.98 and a 52 week high of $59.88. The firm has a market cap of $11.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.76 and a beta of 0.51. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $55.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $53.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.33, a quick ratio of 2.50 and a current ratio of 3.11.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The oil and gas company reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.54 by ($0.90). Sunoco had a return on equity of 13.94% and a net margin of 2.61%.The company had revenue of $6.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.26) earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Sunoco will post 10.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Sunoco Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 6th will be issued a $0.9317 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 6th. This represents a $3.73 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.4%. This is an increase from Sunoco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. Sunoco’s payout ratio is 125.60%.

Institutional Trading of Sunoco

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. bought a new position in Sunoco in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Ancora Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Sunoco in the 3rd quarter valued at $40,000. Harbor Asset Planning Inc. bought a new position in shares of Sunoco in the 2nd quarter valued at $41,000. Cresta Advisors Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Sunoco during the 4th quarter worth $64,000. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Sunoco by 41.7% during the 2nd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,360 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $72,000 after buying an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 24.29% of the company’s stock.

About Sunoco

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.