Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) Stock Has Consensus Target Price of $79.38

Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Buy” by the ten brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $79.75.

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on SUN shares. Citigroup increased their price target on Sunoco from $73.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on shares of Sunoco in a report on Tuesday, October 20th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $87.00 price objective on the stock. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Sunoco in a report on Tuesday, August 18th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $83.00 target price on shares of Sunoco in a research report on Thursday, October 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Sunoco from $77.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th.

Sunoco Price Performance

Sunoco stock opened at $73.47 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $75.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $71.01. Sunoco has a 12 month low of $49.98 and a 12 month high of $80.22. The company has a market cap of $15.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.25 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.95.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The oil and gas company reported $0.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.50 by ($1.56). Sunoco had a return on equity of 18.78% and a net margin of 2.88%. The firm had revenue of $14.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.33 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 164.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Sunoco will post 10.60 EPS for the current year.

Sunoco Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 19th. Investors of record on Friday, November 6th will be issued a $1.0148 dividend. This is a boost from Sunoco’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.0023. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 6th. This represents a $4.06 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.5%. Sunoco’s payout ratio is 89.60%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SUN. Compass Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Sunoco during the third quarter valued at about $58,000. Kercheville Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Sunoco by 0.6% in the third quarter. Kercheville Advisors LLC now owns 160,087 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $11,666,000 after buying an additional 1,001 shares in the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Sunoco by 59.9% in the third quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 1,760 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $128,000 after buying an additional 659 shares in the last quarter. Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC bought a new position in shares of Sunoco in the third quarter valued at approximately $8,993,000. Finally, TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. boosted its position in shares of Sunoco by 198.2% in the third quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 978 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $73,000 after acquiring an additional 650 shares during the period. 24.29% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Sunoco

Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) is a master limited partnership focused primarily on the distribution and wholesale marketing of motor fuels. The company supplies gasoline, diesel and other refined products to independent fuel retailers, commercial customers, distributors and other end users, including customers operating under the Sunoco brand.

Sunoco’s operations include fuel terminals, pipelines, transportation assets and other logistics infrastructure used to receive, store, blend and deliver petroleum products.