Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) Upgraded to Accumulate at Johnson Rice

Johnson Rice upgraded shares of Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) from a hold rating to an accumulate rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Murphy Oil from $27.00 to $25.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 23rd. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Murphy Oil in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. UBS Group increased their price objective on Murphy Oil from $30.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Wall Street Zen raised Murphy Oil from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, March 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Murphy Oil in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Murphy Oil has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.82.

Murphy Oil Stock Up 3.6%

Shares of MUR opened at $40.01 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $5.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.56 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.77. Murphy Oil has a 52 week low of $18.94 and a 52 week high of $40.38. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $33.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.12.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.07) by $0.21. Murphy Oil had a net margin of 3.83% and a return on equity of 3.73%. The firm had revenue of $613.08 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $650.90 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.35 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Murphy Oil will post 2.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Murphy Oil Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 17th were given a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.5%. This is a positive change from Murphy Oil’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.33. Murphy Oil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 194.44%.

Insider Transactions at Murphy Oil

In other Murphy Oil news, SVP Daniel R. Hanchera sold 47,320 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.79, for a total transaction of $1,598,942.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 36,166 shares in the company, valued at $1,222,049.14. The trade was a 56.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 6.52% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Murphy Oil

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Murphy Oil by 61.8% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 22,495 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $704,000 after buying an additional 8,590 shares in the last quarter. Flax Pond Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Murphy Oil in the fourth quarter worth about $6,967,000. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group bought a new position in shares of Murphy Oil in the fourth quarter worth about $233,000. TMB Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Murphy Oil in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $808,000. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 11.1% in the 4th quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 18,768 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $586,000 after purchasing an additional 1,873 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.31% of the company’s stock.

Murphy Oil Company Profile

Murphy Oil Corporation is an independent upstream oil and gas company engaged in the exploration, development and production of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. The company’s operations encompass conventional onshore and offshore reservoirs, with an emphasis on liquids-rich properties and deepwater assets. Through a combination of proprietary technologies and strategic joint ventures, Murphy Oil seeks to optimize recovery rates and manage its portfolio to balance long-term resource development with operational flexibility.

Murphy Oil’s exploration and production activities are geographically diversified.