Alberta Investment Management Corp Sells 132,320 Shares of Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR)

Alberta Investment Management Corp reduced its stake in shares of Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR) by 64.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 72,200 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 132,320 shares during the quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp owned 0.05% of Murphy Oil worth $2,050,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MUR. LPL Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 14.5% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 64,386 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,948,000 after buying an additional 8,135 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA boosted its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 9.7% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 20,146 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $610,000 after purchasing an additional 1,778 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 32.9% during the fourth quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 1,903 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $58,000 after purchasing an additional 471 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 342.8% during the fourth quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 828 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 641 shares during the period. Finally, World Investment Advisors purchased a new stake in shares of Murphy Oil during the fourth quarter worth about $219,000. 78.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on MUR. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Mizuho lowered shares of Murphy Oil from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $31.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $28.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Scotiabank reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $26.00 target price (up from $22.00) on shares of Murphy Oil in a report on Friday, July 11th. Finally, KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Murphy Oil in a report on Monday, April 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.46.

Murphy Oil Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MUR opened at $23.65 on Monday. Murphy Oil Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $18.94 and a fifty-two week high of $39.46. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $24.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $24.66. The company has a market capitalization of $3.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.10 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.76.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.08. Murphy Oil had a net margin of 13.47% and a return on equity of 6.81%. The business had revenue of $665.71 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $684.89 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.85 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Murphy Oil Corporation will post 2.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Murphy Oil Profile

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.