Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado Sells 16,700 Shares of Murphy USA Inc. $MUSA

Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado reduced its stake in Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) by 26.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 46,638 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 16,700 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado’s holdings in Murphy USA were worth $18,819,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Murphy USA by 10.2% in the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 1,685 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $792,000 after acquiring an additional 156 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Murphy USA by 423.1% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 68 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Murphy USA in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $603,000. Cerity Partners LLC purchased a new position in Murphy USA in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $596,000. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd purchased a new position in Murphy USA in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $227,000. 80.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Murphy USA

In other news, SVP Renee M. Bacon sold 1,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 3,083 shares in the company, valued at $1,632,263.52. This represents a 25.41% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Diane N. Landen sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $547.25, for a total value of $1,641,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 53,841 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,464,487.25. This trade represents a 5.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 46,225 shares of company stock worth $27,363,392 over the last three months. 9.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Murphy USA Trading Down 6.0%

NYSE:MUSA opened at $585.48 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.24, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.30. Murphy USA Inc. has a one year low of $345.23 and a one year high of $636.04. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $541.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $463.49.

Murphy USA (NYSE:MUSA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The specialty retailer reported $7.28 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.37 by $1.91. The firm had revenue of $4.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.70 billion. Murphy USA had a return on equity of 91.05% and a net margin of 2.81%.Murphy USA’s revenue was up 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.63 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Murphy USA Inc. will post 32.32 EPS for the current year.

Murphy USA Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 18th were paid a $0.64 dividend. This is a positive change from Murphy USA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.63. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 18th. This represents a $2.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Murphy USA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.85%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MUSA has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Murphy USA from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Murphy USA from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Murphy USA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 30th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Murphy USA from $600.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Murphy USA from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $350.00 to $550.00 in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Murphy USA has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $515.14.

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.