Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) Receives $48.36 Average Target Price from Brokerages

Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the twelve brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $48.36.

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Scotiabank lowered Murphy Oil from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Murphy Oil from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $50.00 to $47.00 in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Murphy Oil in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Murphy Oil from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th.

Murphy Oil Price Performance

MUR stock opened at $37.93 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $5.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.57 and a beta of 2.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.77. Murphy Oil has a 1 year low of $35.61 and a 1 year high of $49.14.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.08. Murphy Oil had a net margin of 16.40% and a return on equity of 11.75%. The company had revenue of $802.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $813.97 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.79 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Murphy Oil will post 4.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Murphy Oil Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Monday, August 19th will be given a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 19th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.16%. Murphy Oil’s payout ratio is 33.43%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Murphy Oil

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Quarry LP increased its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 102.9% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 70,244 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $2,897,000 after acquiring an additional 35,621 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its stake in Murphy Oil by 16.2% in the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 3,140 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $129,000 after purchasing an additional 438 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning raised its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 15.9% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 36,892 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,521,000 after purchasing an additional 5,068 shares during the period. Algert Global LLC boosted its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 5.2% during the 2nd quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 181,023 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $7,465,000 after purchasing an additional 8,971 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Scientech Research LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Murphy Oil in the 2nd quarter valued at about $350,000. 78.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.