Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Purchases New Shares in Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA)

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 878 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $433,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MUSA. V Square Quantitative Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Murphy USA by 40.4% during the third quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 73 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Murphy USA by 3.8% during the second quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 784 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $368,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Murphy USA by 5.6% in the second quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 580 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $272,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. lifted its position in shares of Murphy USA by 141.4% in the second quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 70 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Murphy USA by 25.6% during the second quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 201 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $94,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. 80.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Murphy USA

In other news, Director James W. Keyes sold 2,000 shares of the 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 sale, the director now owns 16,114 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,242,955.56. This represents a 11.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale 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 owned by corporate insiders.

Murphy USA Stock Performance

Shares of Murphy USA stock opened at $531.34 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $497.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $484.92. 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 firm has a market cap of $10.76 billion, a PE 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 announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The specialty retailer reported $7.20 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.64 by $0.56. The company had revenue of $5.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.54 billion. Murphy USA had a net margin of 2.48% and a return on equity of 62.73%. Murphy USA’s revenue was down 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $7.69 earnings per share. Equities 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, November 4th will be issued a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 4th. This is an increase from Murphy USA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. Murphy USA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.92%.

Murphy USA Company 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.