Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) Price Target Raised to $55.00

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) had its price objective raised by Piper Sandler from $49.00 to $55.00 in a research note published on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the oil and gas producer’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on MUR. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $45.00 to $43.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Scotiabank lowered shares of Murphy Oil from a sector outperform rating to a sector perform rating and increased their price target for the stock from $46.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $53.00 to $50.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $50.64.

Murphy Oil Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of Murphy Oil stock opened at $46.06 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The company has a 50-day moving average of $43.32 and a 200 day moving average of $42.62. The firm has a market cap of $7.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.91 and a beta of 2.21. Murphy Oil has a 1 year low of $32.80 and a 1 year high of $49.14.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.00 by ($0.10). The business had revenue of $844.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $852.24 million. Murphy Oil had a return on equity of 13.02% and a net margin of 19.12%. The firm’s revenue was down 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.10 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Murphy Oil will post 4.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Murphy Oil Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 20th 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 2.61%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 17th. Murphy Oil’s payout ratio is presently 28.44%.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Louis W. Utsch sold 30,260 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.94, for a total transaction of $1,208,584.40. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 9,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $379,589.76. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Roger W. Jenkins sold 110,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.39, for a total value of $4,442,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,035,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $41,811,324.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Louis W. Utsch sold 30,260 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.94, for a total transaction of $1,208,584.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 9,504 shares in the company, valued at approximately $379,589.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 156,260 shares of company stock valued at $6,322,644 in the last 90 days. 5.95% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Murphy Oil

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Murphy Oil by 0.8% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,816,692 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $762,637,000 after purchasing an additional 137,059 shares in the last quarter. Comerica Bank purchased a new position in Murphy Oil during the third quarter valued at approximately $4,937,000. Inspire Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Murphy Oil by 21.1% during the third quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 31,974 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,450,000 after purchasing an additional 5,574 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its holdings in Murphy Oil by 1.4% during the third quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 42,223 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,915,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Murphy Oil by 0.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 557,463 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $25,281,000 after purchasing an additional 1,629 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.31% of the company’s stock.

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.