Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) Price Target Lowered to $633.00 at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) had its target price decreased by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $655.00 to $633.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the specialty retailer’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on MUSA. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Murphy USA from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $380.00 to $550.00 in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Murphy USA from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on Murphy USA from $600.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Murphy USA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Murphy USA from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 27th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Murphy USA currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $606.89.

Murphy USA Stock Performance

Shares of MUSA stock opened at $520.70 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $576.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $509.73. Murphy USA has a 52 week low of $349.83 and a 52 week high of $636.04. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.77. The company has a market cap of $9.62 billion, a PE ratio of 15.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 0.28.

Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The specialty retailer reported $11.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.95 by $1.32. Murphy USA had a net margin of 2.87% and a return on equity of 96.01%. The firm had revenue of $6.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $7.36 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 36.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Murphy USA will post 32.58 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Murphy USA news, Director Diane N. Landen sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $547.25, for a total transaction of $1,641,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 53,841 shares in the company, valued at $29,464,487.25. This trade represents a 5.28% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Renee M. Bacon sold 1,050 shares of Murphy USA stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $529.44, for a total value of $555,912.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 3,083 shares in the company, valued at $1,632,263.52. This represents a 25.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 4,567 shares of company stock worth $2,494,673. 9.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Murphy USA

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new stake in Murphy USA in the 4th quarter valued at about $6,874,000. Evergreen Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Murphy USA in the 4th quarter worth about $1,333,000. Recurrent Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Murphy USA by 23.2% in the 1st quarter. Recurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 146,119 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $71,986,000 after purchasing an additional 27,513 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Murphy USA in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,029,000. Finally, VELA Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Murphy USA by 45.4% in the fourth quarter. VELA Investment Management LLC now owns 9,765 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $3,940,000 after purchasing an additional 3,051 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.81% of the company’s stock.

About Murphy USA

Murphy USA is a leading downstream marketer of gasoline, diesel and convenience store products in the United States. Headquartered in El Dorado, Arkansas, the company was originally established as part of Murphy Oil Corporation and was spun off as an independent public entity in 2013. Since its separation, Murphy USA has focused on retail fueling services and convenience offerings designed to deliver value and convenience to consumers.

The company’s primary operations center on two retail formats.