Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) Holdings Decreased by Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC

Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC cut its position in shares of Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) by 61.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,162 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 1,845 shares during the quarter. Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC’s holdings in Murphy USA were worth $546,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MUSA. Mather Group LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of Murphy USA by 141.4% in the 2nd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 70 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Murphy USA by 777.8% in the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 79 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Delta Asset Management LLC TN raised its holdings in shares of Murphy USA by 70.7% during the fourth quarter. Delta Asset Management LLC TN now owns 128 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Murphy USA during the first quarter worth approximately $69,000. Finally, GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Murphy USA by 82.1% in the 2nd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 173 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $81,000 after buying an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.81% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MUSA has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Murphy USA from $540.00 to $560.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Murphy USA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Raymond James increased their price target on Murphy USA from $530.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Murphy USA from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $415.00 to $435.00 in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Murphy USA from $538.00 to $537.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $464.57.

Murphy USA Stock Performance

Shares of MUSA opened at $493.00 on Friday. Murphy USA Inc. has a 52 week low of $338.36 and a 52 week high of $552.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.20, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.84. The company has a market capitalization of $10.21 billion, a PE ratio of 20.69 and a beta of 0.77. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $509.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $460.27.

Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The specialty retailer reported $6.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.91 by $0.01. Murphy USA had a return on equity of 64.73% and a net margin of 2.50%. The company had revenue of $5.45 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.69 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $6.02 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Murphy USA Inc. will post 24.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Murphy USA Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 26th were paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.37%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 26th. This is an increase from Murphy USA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. Murphy USA’s dividend payout ratio is 7.55%.

Insider Transactions at Murphy USA

In other Murphy USA news, Director James W. Keyes sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $511.54, for a total transaction of $1,023,080.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 16,114 shares in the company, valued at $8,242,955.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Robert Madison Murphy sold 16,755 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $514.54, for a total transaction of $8,621,117.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 396,384 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $203,955,423.36. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director James W. Keyes sold 2,000 shares of Murphy USA stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $511.54, for a total value of $1,023,080.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 16,114 shares in the company, valued at $8,242,955.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 32,209 shares of company stock worth $16,564,666. 9.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Murphy USA Profile

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.