Fisher Asset Management LLC Lowers Position in Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR)

Fisher Asset Management LLC lessened its stake in Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) by 5.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 940,763 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 51,213 shares during the quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC owned approximately 0.62% of Murphy Oil worth $40,133,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MUR. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Murphy Oil in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Headinvest LLC bought a new stake in Murphy Oil in the third quarter worth $70,000. Principal Securities Inc. bought a new stake in Murphy Oil in the fourth quarter worth $151,000. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in Murphy Oil in the fourth quarter worth $163,000. Finally, Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its position in Murphy Oil by 18.6% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 3,938 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $168,000 after purchasing an additional 618 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on MUR. Barclays began coverage on shares of Murphy Oil in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $54.00 price target on the stock. Scotiabank cut shares of Murphy Oil from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $46.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $49.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Murphy Oil in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $51.00.

Murphy Oil Trading Up 1.1 %

NYSE MUR opened at $38.73 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $43.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $42.15. 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 $5.91 billion, a PE ratio of 10.79 and a beta of 2.21. Murphy Oil Co. has a 12 month low of $36.34 and a 12 month high of $49.14.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.03. Murphy Oil had a net margin of 16.40% and a return on equity of 11.75%. The company had revenue of $794.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $750.94 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.24 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Murphy Oil Co. will post 4.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Murphy Oil Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Monday, May 20th were paid a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.10%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 17th. Murphy Oil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.43%.

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.