Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV Raises Stock Holdings in Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN)

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its stake in Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN – Get Rating) by 82.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,034 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,000 shares during the quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV’s holdings in Sunoco were worth $476,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA acquired a new stake in Sunoco during the first quarter worth about $7,314,000. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in shares of Sunoco by 26.2% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 398,221 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $16,264,000 after buying an additional 82,745 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Sunoco by 4.2% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,982,341 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $80,959,000 after purchasing an additional 80,430 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG boosted its holdings in Sunoco by 27.7% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 323,564 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $13,946,000 after purchasing an additional 70,145 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Sunoco by 2,798.2% in the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 51,588 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,921,000 after purchasing an additional 49,808 shares during the last quarter. 16.16% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Sunoco Stock Performance

SUN opened at $44.41 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $4.46 billion, a PE ratio of 11.75 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.47. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $43.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $44.32. Sunoco LP has a fifty-two week low of $34.26 and a fifty-two week high of $48.59.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 2nd. The oil and gas company reported $1.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.21 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $5.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.01 billion. Sunoco had a return on equity of 41.03% and a net margin of 1.56%. The company’s revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.32 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Sunoco LP will post 4.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sunoco Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, May 8th were issued a dividend of $0.842 per share. This represents a $3.37 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.58%. This is a positive change from Sunoco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 5th. Sunoco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 89.15%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on SUN shares. Mizuho increased their price target on Sunoco from $48.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 16th. Barclays raised their target price on Sunoco from $48.00 to $51.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 18th. Citigroup raised their target price on Sunoco from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 21st. Raymond James raised their target price on Sunoco from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 21st. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on Sunoco in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $50.29.

Sunoco Company Profile

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Sunoco LP engages in the management and distribution of fuel products. It operates through Fuel Distribution and Marketing and All Other segments. The Fuel Distribution and Marketing segment supplies fuels and other petroleum products, which it supplies to third-party dealers and distributors, independent operators of commission agent, other commercial consumers of motor fuel and to retail locations.