Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) Increases Dividend to $0.33 Per Share

Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 30th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of 0.325 per share by the oil and gas producer on Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $1.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This is an increase from Murphy Oil’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30.

Murphy Oil has increased its dividend payment by an average of 33.9% per year over the last three years. Murphy Oil has a payout ratio of 32.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Murphy Oil to earn $3.98 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.30 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.7%.

Murphy Oil Price Performance

Murphy Oil stock opened at $28.30 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.52 and a beta of 2.14. Murphy Oil has a one year low of $25.26 and a one year high of $49.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.77. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $29.76 and a 200-day moving average price of $32.89.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last issued its earnings results 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 posted $0.90 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Murphy Oil will post 3.21 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Murphy Oil

In related news, Director Claiborne P. Deming bought 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was bought at an average price of $26.47 per share, with a total value of $1,323,500.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 931,651 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,660,801.97. The trade was a 5.67 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Meenambigai Palanivelu purchased 1,573 shares of Murphy Oil stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were bought at an average price of $26.70 per share, for a total transaction of $41,999.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 37,065 shares in the company, valued at $989,635.50. The trade was a 4.43 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 5.92% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on MUR shares. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $35.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $39.00 to $35.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $37.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Morgan Stanley reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $37.00 price objective on shares of Murphy Oil in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Mizuho decreased their target price on Murphy Oil from $50.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.33.

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.