Wall Street Zen Downgrades Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) to Hold

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Saturday.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on SUN. Raymond James Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating and set a $80.00 price target on shares of Sunoco in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Sunoco from $66.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Sunoco from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Sunoco from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Sunoco from $65.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $74.13.

Sunoco Trading Up 1.5%

NYSE:SUN opened at $65.28 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $66.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $61.43. Sunoco has a 12 month low of $47.98 and a 12 month high of $72.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03. The stock has a market cap of $13.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.69 and a beta of 0.43.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The oil and gas company reported $2.85 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.71 by $1.14. Sunoco had a net margin of 3.07% and a return on equity of 17.52%. The firm had revenue of $10.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.19 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.21 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 106.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Sunoco will post 7.92 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sunoco

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Sunoco by 266.6% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,626,278 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $85,233,000 after purchasing an additional 1,182,662 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Sunoco by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 24,856,265 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,302,717,000 after buying an additional 766,781 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Sunoco by 60.5% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,639,420 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $85,922,000 after purchasing an additional 617,700 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Sunoco by 13.3% during the 3rd quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 3,179,502 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $159,007,000 after purchasing an additional 374,396 shares during the period. Finally, Recurrent Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Sunoco by 51.5% during the 1st quarter. Recurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,027,877 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $66,781,000 after purchasing an additional 349,254 shares during the period. 24.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Sunoco Company Profile

Sunoco LP (NYSE: SUN) is an independent master limited partnership that specializes in the distribution and marketing of transportation fuels and related products. The company operates through two primary segments: wholesale fuel distribution and retail marketing. In wholesale distribution, Sunoco supplies branded fuels to distributors, commercial customers and resellers across the United States. Its retail marketing arm operates a network of company‐owned and franchised Sunoco branded service stations and convenience stores, providing gasoline, diesel, ethanol blends and lubricants to consumers.

Sunoco’s product portfolio extends beyond traditional fuels to include biofuels, specialty chemicals and on‐road diesel treated to meet ultra‐low sulfur requirements.