Heartland Advisors Inc. Acquires Shares of 24,049 Murphy USA Inc. $MUSA

Heartland Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 24,049 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $11,879,000.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Murphy USA by 10.2% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 1,685 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $792,000 after buying an additional 156 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Murphy USA by 423.1% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 68 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Murphy USA in the second quarter worth $603,000. Cerity Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Murphy USA in the second quarter valued at $596,000. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd acquired a new stake in Murphy USA in the second quarter valued at $227,000. 80.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MUSA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Murphy USA from $600.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Murphy USA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $550.00 to $625.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on shares of Murphy USA in a research note on Thursday, March 26th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $539.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Murphy USA from $450.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Murphy USA from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 27th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $579.56.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Murphy USA news, SVP Renee M. Bacon sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $529.44, for a total transaction of $555,912.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 3,083 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,632,263.52. This trade represents a 25.41% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Diane N. Landen sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $547.25, for a total transaction of $1,641,750.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 53,841 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,464,487.25. This trade represents a 5.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 46,225 shares of company stock worth $27,363,392. 9.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Murphy USA Stock Performance

Shares of MUSA stock opened at $618.94 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $562.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $491.57. The stock has a market cap of $11.43 billion, a PE ratio of 21.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.30. Murphy USA Inc. has a 1 year low of $345.23 and a 1 year high of $636.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.24, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.83.

Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The specialty retailer reported $7.28 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.37 by $1.91. The company had revenue of $4.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.70 billion. Murphy USA had a return on equity of 91.05% and a net margin of 2.81%.Murphy USA’s quarterly revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.63 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Murphy USA Inc. will post 32.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Murphy USA Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 18th were paid a dividend of $0.64 per share. This is a boost from Murphy USA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.63. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 18th. This represents a $2.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Murphy USA’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.85%.

About Murphy USA

Murphy USA is a leading downstream marketer of gasoline, diesel and convenience store products in the United States. Headquartered in El Dorado, Arkansas, the company was originally established as part of Murphy Oil Corporation and was spun off as an independent public entity in 2013. Since its separation, Murphy USA has focused on retail fueling services and convenience offerings designed to deliver value and convenience to consumers.

The company’s primary operations center on two retail formats.