Barclays Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) Stock

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) had its price objective increased by Barclays from $59.00 to $62.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the oil and gas company’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on SUN. Mizuho boosted their target price on Sunoco from $61.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Sunoco from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $63.67.

Sunoco Stock Up 0.6 %

NYSE:SUN opened at $57.78 on Friday. Sunoco has a 1 year low of $49.45 and a 1 year high of $62.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84. The stock has a market cap of $8.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.75 and a beta of 1.35. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $56.24 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $54.11.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The oil and gas company reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by ($0.73). Sunoco had a net margin of 3.85% and a return on equity of 22.52%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Sunoco will post 10.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Sunoco Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were issued a $0.8865 dividend. This represents a $3.55 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.14%. This is a positive change from Sunoco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. Sunoco’s payout ratio is 53.64%.

Institutional Trading of Sunoco

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. State of Wyoming acquired a new position in Sunoco during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $102,000. Recurrent Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Sunoco by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Recurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 888,862 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $45,723,000 after purchasing an additional 24,686 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its position in Sunoco by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 2,608,701 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $134,192,000 after purchasing an additional 128,042 shares during the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Sunoco by 58.8% during the fourth quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 11,097 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $571,000 after purchasing an additional 4,109 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its position in Sunoco by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 33,599 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,728,000 after purchasing an additional 916 shares during the last quarter. 24.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Sunoco

Sunoco LP, together with its subsidiaries, distributes and retails motor fuels in the United States. It operates through two segments: Fuel Distribution and Marketing, and All Other. The Fuel Distribution and Marketing segment purchases motor fuel, as well as other petroleum products, such as propane and lubricating oil from independent refiners and oil companies and supplies it to company-operated retail stores, independently operated commission agents, and retail stores, as well as other commercial customers, including unbranded retail stores, other fuel distributors, school districts, municipalities, and other industrial customers.