Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) Price Target Raised to $54.00

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) had its price objective upped by KeyCorp from $50.00 to $54.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. KeyCorp currently has an overweight rating on the oil and gas producer’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on MUR. Roth Mkm reissued a buy rating on shares of Murphy Oil in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Scotiabank cut Murphy Oil from a sector outperform rating to a sector perform rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $46.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Mizuho upped their price target on Murphy Oil from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Barclays assumed coverage on Murphy Oil in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. They set an equal weight rating and a $54.00 price target on the stock. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Murphy Oil from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $50.64.

Murphy Oil Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE MUR opened at $46.22 on Monday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $42.65. Murphy Oil has a one year low of $32.80 and a one year high of $49.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.95 and a beta of 2.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.00 by ($0.10). Murphy Oil had a return on equity of 13.02% and a net margin of 19.12%. The business had revenue of $844.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $852.24 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.10 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Murphy Oil will post 4.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Murphy Oil Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Monday, May 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 17th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.60%. Murphy Oil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 28.44%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Murphy Oil news, VP Paul D. Vaughan sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.61, for a total value of $237,660.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 11,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $470,447.97. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Murphy Oil news, VP Paul D. Vaughan sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.61, for a total value of $237,660.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 11,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $470,447.97. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Maria A. Martinez sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.35, for a total value of $433,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 40,590 shares in the company, valued at $1,759,576.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 156,260 shares of company stock valued at $6,322,644. Corporate insiders own 5.95% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Murphy Oil

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 0.8% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,861,968 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $335,397,000 after purchasing an additional 207,547 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,566,887 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $116,408,000 after purchasing an additional 121,795 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 3,904.6% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,090,904 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $89,198,000 after purchasing an additional 2,038,692 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,946,095 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $88,255,000 after purchasing an additional 99,427 shares during the last quarter. 78.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.