Teacher Retirement System of Texas Acquires New Position in Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas bought a new position in shares of Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 20,301 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $577,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MUR. New York State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in Murphy Oil by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 208,759 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $5,929,000 after purchasing an additional 7,447 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 7,070.1% in the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 113,144 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $3,210,000 after purchasing an additional 111,566 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 1,162.2% during the 1st quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 144,742 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $4,111,000 after purchasing an additional 133,275 shares during the last quarter. Security National Bank grew its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 0.7% during the first quarter. Security National Bank now owns 199,857 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $5,676,000 after purchasing an additional 1,400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. increased its holdings in Murphy Oil by 4.6% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 621,575 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $17,654,000 after buying an additional 27,563 shares during the last quarter. 78.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating on shares of Murphy Oil in a report on Monday, April 21st. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Roth Capital downgraded shares of Murphy Oil from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $27.00 to $25.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Mizuho lowered shares of Murphy Oil from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $32.00 to $31.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Finally, Scotiabank reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $26.00 price target (up from $22.00) on shares of Murphy Oil in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.46.

Murphy Oil Stock Down 2.5%

MUR opened at $24.32 on Thursday. Murphy Oil Corporation has a 52 week low of $18.95 and a 52 week high of $43.02. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $23.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $25.30. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The company has a market cap of $3.47 billion, a PE ratio of 9.36 and a beta of 1.09.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $665.71 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $684.89 million. Murphy Oil had a return on equity of 6.81% and a net margin of 13.47%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 15.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.85 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Murphy Oil Corporation will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

About Murphy Oil

Murphy Oil Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an oil and 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.