Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Reduces Stake in Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS reduced its holdings in Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) by 3.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 30,277 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 988 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Murphy Oil were worth $916,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Lindbrook Capital LLC increased its position in Murphy Oil by 60.5% during the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,441 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 543 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 32.9% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,284 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 565 shares during the period. New Wave Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Murphy Oil in the fourth quarter worth about $113,000. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund purchased a new stake in Murphy Oil in the fourth quarter worth about $188,000. Finally, IFP Advisors Inc boosted its position in Murphy Oil by 67.5% during the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 6,337 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $192,000 after acquiring an additional 2,553 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.31% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Meenambigai Palanivelu purchased 1,573 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $26.70 per share, for a total transaction of $41,999.10. Following the purchase, the vice president now directly owns 37,065 shares in the company, valued at $989,635.50. This trade represents a 4.43 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Claiborne P. Deming bought 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $26.47 per share, with a total value of $1,323,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 931,651 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,660,801.97. This trade represents a 5.67 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 5.92% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MUR has been the subject of several research reports. Mizuho decreased their target price on Murphy Oil from $50.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Murphy Oil in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Morgan Stanley reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $37.00 price target on shares of Murphy Oil in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, KeyCorp cut their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $50.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.31.

Murphy Oil Stock Performance

Shares of MUR opened at $28.33 on Thursday. Murphy Oil Co. has a 12 month low of $22.90 and a 12 month high of $49.14. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $27.53 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $30.79. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The company has a market cap of $4.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.53 and a beta of 2.18.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.62 by ($0.27). Murphy Oil had a return on equity of 7.66% and a net margin of 13.44%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Murphy Oil Co. will post 2.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Murphy Oil Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were given a dividend of $0.325 per share. This is an increase from Murphy Oil’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $1.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.59%. Murphy Oil’s dividend payout ratio is 48.33%.

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.