Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and seven have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $48.90.

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on MUR. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 28th. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $47.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 23rd. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 18th. Truist Financial lowered their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $60.00 to $52.00 in a research report on Monday, July 24th. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Murphy Oil in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock.

Murphy Oil Trading Up 2.4 %

NYSE MUR opened at $46.47 on Friday. Murphy Oil has a 1-year low of $31.90 and a 1-year high of $51.28. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a market capitalization of $7.26 billion, a PE ratio of 7.19 and a beta of 2.38. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $41.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.92.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.05. Murphy Oil had a net margin of 25.86% and a return on equity of 15.09%. The business had revenue of $814.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $779.77 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.93 earnings per share. Murphy Oil’s revenue for the quarter was down 26.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Murphy Oil will post 4.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Murphy Oil Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 14th were given a $0.275 dividend. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.37%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 11th. Murphy Oil’s dividend payout ratio is currently 17.03%.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP John B. Gardner sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.95, for a total value of $429,500.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 19,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $854,490.25. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, Director Robert Madison Murphy sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.30, for a total value of $4,330,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 1,499,831 shares in the company, valued at $64,942,682.30. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP John B. Gardner sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.95, for a total transaction of $429,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 19,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $854,490.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 5.92% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Murphy Oil

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Murphy Oil by 73.5% during the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 21,212 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $857,000 after purchasing an additional 8,987 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Murphy Oil by 45.2% during the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 15,252 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $616,000 after purchasing an additional 4,749 shares during the period. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC lifted its stake in Murphy Oil by 22.5% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 10,669 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $431,000 after purchasing an additional 1,961 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its stake in Murphy Oil by 2.2% during the first quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 446,302 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $18,026,000 after purchasing an additional 9,758 shares during the period. Finally, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its stake in Murphy Oil by 10.5% during the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 53,213 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $2,149,000 after purchasing an additional 5,075 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.30% of the company’s stock.

About Murphy Oil

Murphy Oil Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an oil and natural gas exploration and production company in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It explores for and produces crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids. The company was formerly known as Murphy Corporation and changed its name to Murphy Oil Corporation in 1964.