Murphy USA Inc. (MUSA) To Go Ex-Dividend on May 18th

Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 7th. Investors of record on Monday, May 18th will be given a dividend of 0.64 per share by the specialty retailer on Monday, June 1st. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 18th. This is a 1.6% increase from Murphy USA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.63.

Murphy USA has increased its dividend by an average of 0.5%annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 4 years. Murphy USA has a dividend payout ratio of 9.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Murphy USA to earn $29.26 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 8.7%.

Murphy USA Price Performance

MUSA opened at $563.14 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.24. Murphy USA has a 12 month low of $345.23 and a 12 month high of $609.82. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $505.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $435.95. The stock has a market cap of $10.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.36.

Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The specialty retailer reported $7.28 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.37 by $1.91. The business had revenue of $4.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.70 billion. Murphy USA had a net margin of 2.81% and a return on equity of 91.05%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.63 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Murphy USA will post 31.8 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on MUSA. Bank of America upgraded Murphy USA from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $350.00 to $550.00 in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. KeyCorp increased their target price on Murphy USA from $560.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Weiss Ratings cut Murphy USA from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Murphy USA from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Murphy USA from $450.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Murphy USA presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $503.71.

Murphy USA Company Profile

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.