Short Interest in Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) Decreases By 17.6%

Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,970,000 shares, a decline of 17.6% from the February 13th total of 2,390,000 shares. Currently, 1.3% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 503,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.9 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sunoco

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Sunoco by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,868,926 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $456,218,000 after purchasing an additional 198,859 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in Sunoco by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 2,608,701 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $134,192,000 after acquiring an additional 128,042 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Sunoco by 26.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,191,570 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $117,644,000 after acquiring an additional 455,361 shares during the last quarter. Infrastructure Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Sunoco by 3.1% in the third quarter. Infrastructure Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,087,407 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $58,372,000 after acquiring an additional 32,239 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Recurrent Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Sunoco by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Recurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 888,862 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $45,723,000 after acquiring an additional 24,686 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 24.29% of the company’s stock.

Sunoco Price Performance

Shares of SUN stock traded up $0.10 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $58.55. 321,312 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 491,069. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $56.75 and its two-hundred day moving average is $54.24. Sunoco has a fifty-two week low of $49.45 and a fifty-two week high of $62.55. The company has a market cap of $8.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.87 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 0.66.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The oil and gas company reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.48 by ($0.73). Sunoco had a return on equity of 22.52% and a net margin of 3.85%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Sunoco will post 10.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sunoco Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were given a dividend of $0.8865 per share. This is an increase from Sunoco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.55 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.06%. Sunoco’s dividend payout ratio is currently 53.64%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SUN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Sunoco from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Sunoco from $61.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Sunoco from $59.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Sunoco presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $63.67.

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.