Murphy USA (MUSA) Q1 Earnings & Revenues Beat Estimates

XOM SU IMO MUSA

Murphy USA Inc. (MUSA - Free Report) announced first-quarter 2021 earnings per share of $2.01, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.53. The outperformance could be attributed to higher retail gasoline price and contribution from the QuickChek acquisition.

However, the company’s bottom line compared unfavorably with the year-earlier quarter's earnings of $2.92 due to a lower retail margin of 15.5 cents per gallon that fell 42.4% year over year and missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 17.5 cents.

Meanwhile, Murphy USA’s operating revenues of $3.5 billion rose 11.1% year over year and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by $84 million due to improved petroleum product sales.

Revenues from petroleum product sales came in at $2.6 billion, up 6.3% from the first quarter of 2020 and 4.7% above the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Further, merchandise sales, at $833.2 million, rose 21.2% year over year but fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $871 million.

Balance Sheet

As of Mar 31, Murphy USA — which opened one new retail location and added 156 stores related to the QuickChek acquisition in the quarter to take its store count to 1,660   — had cash and cash equivalents of $304.1 million, and long-term debt (including lease obligations) of $1.8 billion, with a debt-to-capitalization of 69.7%.

During the quarter, the company bought back shares worth $50 million.

Zacks Rank & Stock Picks

Murphy USA carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked players in the energy space are Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM - Free Report) , Imperial Oil Limited (IMO - Free Report) and Suncor Energy (SU - Free Report) . All the companies sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

ExxonMobil has an expected earnings growth rate of 1,087.88% for the current year.  

Imperial Oil has an expected earnings growth rate of 336.59% for the current year.

Suncor Energy has an expected earnings growth rate of 223.64% for the current year.

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