Koshinski Asset Management Inc. Invests $215,000 in Murphy USA Inc. $MUSA

Koshinski Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 529 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $215,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MUSA. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Murphy USA by 14.0% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,179 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $554,000 after buying an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of Murphy USA by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 3,538 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,663,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue lifted its stake in shares of Murphy USA by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 2,130 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,000,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Narwhal Capital Management lifted its stake in shares of Murphy USA by 98.6% during the 1st quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 13,413 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $6,302,000 after buying an additional 6,659 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Murphy USA by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 70,888 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $33,305,000 after buying an additional 2,826 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.81% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MUSA has been the subject of a number of research reports. Zacks Research cut shares of Murphy USA from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Murphy USA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $350.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Murphy USA in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $480.00 price objective on shares of Murphy USA in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of Murphy USA in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $405.00 price objective for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $477.33.

Murphy USA Price Performance

MUSA stock opened at $371.68 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.20. Murphy USA Inc. has a 12 month low of $345.23 and a 12 month high of $561.08. The firm has a market cap of $7.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.39 and a beta of 0.42. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $384.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $419.59.

Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The specialty retailer reported $7.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.82 by $0.54. Murphy USA had a net margin of 2.52% and a return on equity of 64.63%. The firm had revenue of $5.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.17 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $6.92 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Murphy USA Inc. will post 26.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Murphy USA Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Murphy USA

In related news, COO Malynda K. West sold 1,859 shares of Murphy USA stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $386.22, for a total transaction of $717,982.98. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 117,389 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,337,979.58. The trade was a 1.56% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Robert Madison Murphy purchased 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $367.01 per share, for a total transaction of $1,835,050.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 389,172 shares in the company, valued at $142,830,015.72. The trade was a 1.30% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 10.12% of the company’s stock.

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.