Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Invests $433,000 in Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA)

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund acquired 878 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $433,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Murphy USA by 49,501.3% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 388,874 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $191,664,000 after purchasing an additional 388,090 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Murphy USA by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 245,220 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $102,797,000 after acquiring an additional 1,519 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Murphy USA by 0.8% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 204,363 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $95,940,000 after purchasing an additional 1,560 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Murphy USA by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 141,637 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $66,493,000 after purchasing an additional 1,635 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fiera Capital Corp purchased a new position in shares of Murphy USA in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $53,387,000. 80.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MUSA. StockNews.com lowered shares of Murphy USA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 26th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Murphy USA from $540.00 to $560.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on Murphy USA from $538.00 to $537.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Raymond James raised their price target on Murphy USA from $530.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Murphy USA from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $415.00 to $435.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $495.33.

Murphy USA Trading Up 1.2 %

MUSA opened at $531.34 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.19. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $497.49 and its two-hundred day moving average is $484.92. The company has a market capitalization of $10.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.95 and a beta of 0.75. Murphy USA Inc. has a 52 week low of $350.55 and a 52 week high of $552.30.

Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The specialty retailer reported $7.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.64 by $0.56. The business had revenue of $5.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.54 billion. Murphy USA had a return on equity of 62.73% and a net margin of 2.48%. The business’s revenue was down 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $7.69 EPS. Analysts forecast that Murphy USA Inc. will post 23.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Murphy USA Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 4th will be given a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.36%. This is a positive change from Murphy USA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 4th. Murphy USA’s payout ratio is presently 7.92%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Murphy USA news, Director James W. Keyes sold 2,000 shares of Murphy USA stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $511.54, for a total value of $1,023,080.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,114 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,242,955.56. The trade was a 11.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 9.04% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.