EP Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires New Holdings in Murphy Oil Corporation $MUR

EP Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 7,124 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $202,000.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 34.6% during the 1st quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 12,893 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $366,000 after purchasing an additional 3,317 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 489.1% during the 1st quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 399,104 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $11,335,000 after purchasing an additional 331,355 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 146.5% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,106 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $88,000 after purchasing an additional 1,846 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 14.2% during the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 214,258 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $6,085,000 after purchasing an additional 26,563 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 7,070.1% during the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 113,144 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $3,210,000 after purchasing an additional 111,566 shares during the last quarter. 78.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Murphy Oil Trading Up 4.6%

MUR opened at $26.07 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.51 and a beta of 1.15. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $24.56 and its 200-day moving average is $23.83. Murphy Oil Corporation has a 52-week low of $18.94 and a 52-week high of $36.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $695.57 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $632.51 million. Murphy Oil had a net margin of 10.20% and a return on equity of 5.25%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.81 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Murphy Oil Corporation will post 2.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Murphy Oil Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, August 18th were paid a $0.325 dividend. This represents a $1.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.0%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 18th. Murphy Oil’s payout ratio is 67.36%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on MUR. Wells Fargo & Company set a $24.00 target price on Murphy Oil and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Scotiabank reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $26.00 target price (up from $22.00) on shares of Murphy Oil in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Roth Capital cut shares of Murphy Oil from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $27.00 to $25.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Johnson Rice cut shares of Murphy Oil from an “accumulate” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $29.69.

Murphy Oil Company 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.