Barclays PLC Increases Holdings in Sunoco LP $SUN

Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) by 33.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 593,970 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after acquiring an additional 149,732 shares during the quarter. Barclays PLC owned approximately 0.39% of Sunoco worth $29,704,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Alps Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Sunoco by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 24,089,484 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,204,715,000 after buying an additional 599,655 shares in the last quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC lifted its position in Sunoco by 4.1% in the second quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 1,883,992 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $100,963,000 after acquiring an additional 73,696 shares during the last quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY boosted its position in shares of Sunoco by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 694,880 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $34,751,000 after purchasing an additional 3,784 shares during the period. Neuberger Berman Group LLC boosted its stake in Sunoco by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 670,269 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $35,920,000 after purchasing an additional 25,757 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Sunoco by 5.5% during the second quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 365,953 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $19,611,000 after buying an additional 18,990 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 24.29% of the company’s stock.

Sunoco Price Performance

Shares of SUN opened at $64.01 on Wednesday. Sunoco LP has a one year low of $47.98 and a one year high of $65.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.20 and a beta of 0.49. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $58.86 and its 200-day moving average is $54.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 1.38.

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

Sunoco Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 19th. Investors of record on Friday, February 6th were issued a $0.9317 dividend. This is an increase from Sunoco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. This represents a $3.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 6th. Sunoco’s dividend payout ratio is currently 164.32%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.