Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) Short Interest Down 12.6% in June

Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) saw a large drop in short interest in June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,430,000 shares, a drop of 12.6% from the May 31st total of 7,360,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,380,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.7 days. Currently, 4.5% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Murphy Oil Stock Down 0.4 %

NYSE:MUR opened at $41.07 on Tuesday. Murphy Oil has a 1 year low of $36.34 and a 1 year high of $49.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The stock has a market cap of $6.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.44 and a beta of 2.26. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $42.28 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $42.06.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $794.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $750.94 million. Murphy Oil had a return on equity of 11.75% and a net margin of 16.40%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.24 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Murphy Oil will post 4.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Murphy Oil Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Monday, May 20th were issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 17th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.92%. Murphy Oil’s payout ratio is presently 33.43%.

Institutional Trading of Murphy Oil

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Murphy Oil by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,861,968 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $335,397,000 after acquiring an additional 207,547 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. raised its holdings in Murphy Oil by 11.9% during the fourth quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 164,568 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $7,020,000 after acquiring an additional 17,556 shares in the last quarter. DRW Securities LLC raised its stake in Murphy Oil by 280.0% in the fourth quarter. DRW Securities LLC now owns 72,200 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $3,080,000 after buying an additional 53,201 shares during the period. Invenomic Capital Management LP bought a new stake in Murphy Oil in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $16,349,000. Finally, Innealta Capital LLC bought a new stake in Murphy Oil in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $298,000. Institutional investors own 78.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on MUR shares. KeyCorp raised their target price on Murphy Oil from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Scotiabank cut Murphy Oil from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $46.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Murphy Oil from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Mizuho lifted their target price on Murphy Oil from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Finally, Barclays assumed coverage on Murphy Oil in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $54.00 price objective for the company. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Murphy Oil presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $51.00.

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.