Artisan Partners Limited Partnership Sells 1,050,534 Shares of Suncor Energy Inc. $SU

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership trimmed its stake in shares of Suncor Energy Inc. (NYSE:SU) (TSE:SU) by 3.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 32,818,241 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 1,050,534 shares during the quarter. Suncor Energy makes up approximately 2.2% of Artisan Partners Limited Partnership’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest position. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership’s holdings in Suncor Energy were worth $1,456,652,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in SU. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Suncor Energy by 85.5% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 15,530,965 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $649,350,000 after acquiring an additional 7,158,953 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in shares of Suncor Energy by 62.2% during the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 13,335,239 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $557,682,000 after acquiring an additional 5,113,280 shares during the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its position in shares of Suncor Energy by 5,468.8% during the fourth quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 2,289,219 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $101,609,000 after acquiring an additional 2,248,111 shares during the last quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp bought a new position in shares of Suncor Energy during the fourth quarter worth about $93,960,000. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. raised its position in shares of Suncor Energy by 334.8% during the third quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 2,590,863 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $108,324,000 after acquiring an additional 1,995,007 shares during the last quarter. 67.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on SU. Zacks Research downgraded Suncor Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Weiss Ratings downgraded Suncor Energy from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded Suncor Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $72.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, June 5th. ATB Cormark Capital Markets upgraded Suncor Energy from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Suncor Energy from $75.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $71.67.

Suncor Energy Trading Down 2.5%

Shares of SU stock opened at $58.14 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $68.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.26 and a beta of 0.27. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $64.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $56.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.42. Suncor Energy Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.22 and a fifty-two week high of $70.29.

Suncor Energy (NYSE:SU) (TSE:SU) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The oil and gas producer reported $1.41 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $10.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.22 billion. Suncor Energy had a return on equity of 13.96% and a net margin of 12.29%.During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.31 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Suncor Energy Inc. will post 7.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Suncor Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 4th will be issued a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.1%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 4th. Suncor Energy’s payout ratio is presently 45.41%.

Suncor Energy Profile

Suncor Energy Inc is a Canadian integrated energy company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. The company’s operations span the full oil and gas value chain, with principal activities in oil sands development and production, conventional exploration and production, refining, distribution and retail marketing of petroleum products. Suncor supplies crude, synthetic crude and refined fuels as well as related products and services to commercial and consumer markets.

Upstream, Suncor is a major developer and operator of oil sands projects in Alberta, using both mining and in situ technologies to produce bitumen and synthetic crude.