Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) Raised to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Saturday.

MUR has been the subject of several other research reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Murphy Oil from $27.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 6th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $28.00 to $27.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Murphy Oil in a report on Monday. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $29.08.

Murphy Oil Stock Performance

NYSE:MUR opened at $33.34 on Friday. Murphy Oil has a 52 week low of $18.94 and a 52 week high of $34.52. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $26.52. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The company has a market cap of $4.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.02 and a beta of 0.81.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 21st. The oil and gas producer reported ($0.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Murphy Oil had a net margin of 5.16% and a return on equity of 4.30%. The company had revenue of $440.08 million during the quarter. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Murphy Oil will post 2.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Murphy Oil

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MUR. LPL Financial LLC grew its stake in Murphy Oil by 15.7% during the 1st quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 74,510 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $2,116,000 after buying an additional 10,124 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 2.6% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,463,459 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $41,562,000 after acquiring an additional 37,753 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Murphy Oil during the first quarter worth approximately $16,189,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 252.3% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 118,675 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $3,370,000 after acquiring an additional 84,985 shares during the period. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Murphy Oil in the 1st quarter valued at $269,000. 78.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.