Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) Downgraded to Underweight at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) from a neutral rating to an underweight rating in a report released on Thursday morning, Marketbeat reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has $435.00 price target on the specialty retailer’s stock, up from their previous price target of $415.00.

MUSA has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Raymond James raised their price target on shares of Murphy USA from $530.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Murphy USA from $538.00 to $537.00 and set a sector perform rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Murphy USA from $540.00 to $560.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Murphy USA from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Tuesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $464.57.

Murphy USA Stock Performance

NYSE MUSA opened at $493.00 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $10.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.69 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a 50 day moving average of $509.74 and a 200-day moving average of $460.27. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.20. Murphy USA has a 1-year low of $338.36 and a 1-year high of $552.30.

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

Murphy USA Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 26th were issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 26th. This is a positive change from Murphy USA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. Murphy USA’s payout ratio is currently 7.55%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 transaction of $1,023,080.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 16,114 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,242,955.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Robert Madison Murphy sold 16,755 shares of Murphy USA stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 396,384 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $203,955,423.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director James W. Keyes sold 2,000 shares of Murphy USA stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $511.54, for a total transaction of $1,023,080.00. Following the transaction, 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. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 32,209 shares of company stock valued at $16,564,666. Company insiders own 9.04% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Murphy USA

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Murphy USA during the second quarter worth $1,251,000. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its position in shares of Murphy USA by 1.2% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 4,599 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $2,159,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its position in shares of Murphy USA by 8.7% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 2,233 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,048,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Murphy USA by 1.2% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 141,637 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $66,493,000 after purchasing an additional 1,635 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alpha DNA Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Murphy USA by 29.1% during the second quarter. Alpha DNA Investment Management LLC now owns 1,015 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $477,000 after purchasing an additional 229 shares in the last quarter. 80.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Murphy USA

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.