Everence Capital Management Inc. Purchases Shares of 2,200 Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA)

Everence Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 2,200 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $1,104,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MUSA. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Murphy USA by 6.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,751,206 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $863,116,000 after acquiring an additional 99,253 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Murphy USA by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 590,558 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $291,068,000 after purchasing an additional 8,507 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Murphy USA by 69.9% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 428,379 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $211,135,000 after purchasing an additional 176,308 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Murphy USA by 49,501.3% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 388,874 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $191,664,000 after purchasing an additional 388,090 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Murphy USA by 4.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 388,271 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $191,407,000 after buying an additional 16,006 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.81% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MUSA has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Murphy USA from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $415.00 to $435.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. StockNews.com raised Murphy USA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $495.33.

Murphy USA Stock Performance

Shares of MUSA stock opened at $500.41 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $521.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $504.36. Murphy USA Inc. has a 12 month low of $350.55 and a 12 month high of $561.08. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.64 and a beta of 0.78.

Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The specialty retailer reported $7.20 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.64 by $0.56. The firm had revenue of $5.24 billion for 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%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $7.69 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Murphy USA Inc. will post 23.59 EPS for the current year.

Murphy USA Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, November 4th were given a dividend of $0.48 per share. This is a positive change from Murphy USA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.38%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 4th. Murphy USA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.92%.

Murphy USA 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.