Murphy USA (MUSA) Set to Announce Quarterly Earnings on Wednesday

Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) is scheduled to be issuing its quarterly earnings data after the market closes on Wednesday, October 30th. Analysts expect the company to announce earnings of $6.69 per share for the quarter. Parties that are interested in registering for the company’s conference call can do so using this link.

Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) last released its earnings results 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. Murphy USA had a return on equity of 64.73% and a net margin of 2.50%. The firm had revenue of $5.45 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.69 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $6.02 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect Murphy USA to post $24 EPS for the current fiscal year and $27 EPS for the next fiscal year.

Murphy USA Stock Up 1.9 %

NYSE MUSA opened at $482.16 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $499.27 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $474.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.20, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.52. Murphy USA has a fifty-two week low of $350.55 and a fifty-two week high of $552.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.88 billion, a PE ratio of 19.50 and a beta of 0.77.

Murphy USA Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 4th will be paid a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.40%. This is a boost from Murphy USA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 4th. Murphy USA’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director James W. Keyes sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 16,114 shares in the company, valued at $8,242,955.56. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, Director Robert Madison Murphy sold 16,755 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $514.54, for a total value of $8,621,117.70. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 396,384 shares in the company, valued at $203,955,423.36. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director James W. Keyes sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 16,114 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,242,955.56. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 32,209 shares of company stock valued at $16,564,666 in the last three months. Insiders own 9.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on MUSA. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Murphy USA from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $415.00 to $435.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. StockNews.com cut Murphy USA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target 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. 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Murphy USA from $540.00 to $560.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $495.33.

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.