Analysts Set Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) PT at $48.36

Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the twelve ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $47.91.

Several research firms recently issued reports on MUR. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $54.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Murphy Oil in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Murphy Oil from $47.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Truist Financial cut their price target on Murphy Oil from $59.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $54.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 12th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Murphy Oil

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MUR. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in Murphy Oil by 90.5% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,092,374 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $45,050,000 after purchasing an additional 518,904 shares in the last quarter. Invenomic Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Murphy Oil in the 4th quarter valued at $16,349,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its position in Murphy Oil by 92.1% in the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 687,254 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $28,342,000 after buying an additional 329,521 shares during the last quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Murphy Oil during the 4th quarter valued at $12,988,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Murphy Oil by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,254,125 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $340,400,000 after acquiring an additional 262,256 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.31% of the company’s stock.

Murphy Oil Price Performance

Shares of MUR opened at $38.27 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $39.53 and a 200-day moving average of $41.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The company has a market capitalization of $5.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.66 and a beta of 2.25. Murphy Oil has a 1 year low of $35.61 and a 1 year high of $49.14.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.08. Murphy Oil had a net margin of 16.40% and a return on equity of 11.75%. The firm had revenue of $802.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $813.97 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.79 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Murphy Oil will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Murphy Oil Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 19th. Murphy Oil’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.43%.

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.