Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) Given New $67.00 Price Target at Wells Fargo & Company

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) had its price target lifted by Wells Fargo & Company from $65.00 to $67.00 in a research report released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the oil and gas company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on SUN. Raymond James Financial upgraded Sunoco from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $70.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Sunoco from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Zacks Research cut shares of Sunoco from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Sunoco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 14th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Sunoco from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.17.

Sunoco Stock Performance

Shares of SUN stock opened at $61.79 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $12.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.22 and a beta of 0.51. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $56.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $53.81. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06. Sunoco has a 12 month low of $47.98 and a 12 month high of $63.59.

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

Sunoco Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 6th were paid a $0.9317 dividend. This is an increase from Sunoco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 6th. This represents a $3.73 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.0%. Sunoco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 164.32%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sunoco

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Alps Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Sunoco by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 24,856,265 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,302,717,000 after buying an additional 766,781 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Sunoco by 13.3% during the third quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 3,179,502 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $159,007,000 after acquiring an additional 374,396 shares during the period. Energy Income Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Sunoco by 1.7% during the third quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 1,916,858 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $95,862,000 after acquiring an additional 32,866 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Sunoco by 60.5% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,639,420 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $85,922,000 after purchasing an additional 617,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Sunoco by 266.6% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,626,278 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $85,233,000 after purchasing an additional 1,182,662 shares during the period. 24.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.