Raymond James & Associates Sells 5,989 Shares of Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN)

Raymond James & Associates lessened its stake in shares of Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) by 7.0% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 79,123 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 5,989 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates’ holdings in Sunoco were worth $4,474,000 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 SUN. Blackstone Inc. increased its stake in Sunoco by 58.0% during the 4th quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 2,387,608 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $143,089,000 after acquiring an additional 876,452 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Sunoco by 10.5% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,904,735 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $174,081,000 after acquiring an additional 275,875 shares during the period. Adams Asset Advisors LLC increased its stake in Sunoco by 82.3% during the 2nd quarter. Adams Asset Advisors LLC now owns 571,538 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $32,315,000 after acquiring an additional 258,103 shares during the period. TCG Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in Sunoco during the 4th quarter worth $14,380,000. Finally, UBS Group AG increased its stake in shares of Sunoco by 68.3% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 540,949 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $32,419,000 after purchasing an additional 219,482 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 24.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on SUN. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Sunoco from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $62.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Citigroup upgraded Sunoco from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on Sunoco in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $61.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com lowered Sunoco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on Sunoco from $61.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Sunoco currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.86.

Sunoco Trading Up 3.3 %

NYSE SUN opened at $54.78 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69. Sunoco LP has a twelve month low of $44.26 and a twelve month high of $64.89. The company has a market cap of $8.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.20 and a beta of 1.31. The business’s fifty day moving average is $54.98 and its 200 day moving average is $56.32.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The oil and gas company reported $3.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.23 by $2.62. Sunoco had a return on equity of 41.76% and a net margin of 3.80%. The company had revenue of $6.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.63 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.78 EPS. Sunoco’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Sunoco LP will post 7.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sunoco Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were issued a dividend of $0.8756 per share. This represents a $3.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.39%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. Sunoco’s payout ratio is presently 77.95%.

Sunoco Company Profile

Sunoco LP, together with its subsidiaries, distributes and retails motor fuels in the United States. It operates through two segments: Fuel Distribution and Marketing, and All Other. The Fuel Distribution and Marketing segment purchases motor fuel, as well as other petroleum products, such as propane and lubricating oil from independent refiners and oil companies and supplies it to company-operated retail stores, independently operated commission agents, and retail stores, as well as other commercial customers, including unbranded retail stores, other fuel distributors, school districts, municipalities, and other industrial customers.