Principal Financial Group Inc. Decreases Holdings in Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR)

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its position in shares of Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) by 11.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 486,121 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 64,585 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.32% of Murphy Oil worth $20,048,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mather Group LLC. lifted its position in Murphy Oil by 1,015.7% during the second quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 569 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 518 shares during the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Murphy Oil in the first quarter worth $30,000. Lindbrook Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 47.7% in the first quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 721 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 233 shares during the last quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 27.0% in the first quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 2,105 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $96,000 after buying an additional 447 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC raised its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 14.0% in the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,547 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $116,000 after buying an additional 313 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $59.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 13th. Scotiabank cut shares of Murphy Oil from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $54.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Murphy Oil from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $50.00 to $47.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $47.91.

Murphy Oil Stock Down 4.3 %

MUR stock opened at $35.67 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $5.44 billion, a PE ratio of 9.94 and a beta of 2.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.82. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $39.21 and its 200 day moving average is $41.70. Murphy Oil Co. has a one year low of $35.49 and a one year high of $49.14.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $802.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $813.97 million. Murphy Oil had a net margin of 17.32% and a return on equity of 11.68%. The firm’s revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.79 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Murphy Oil Co. will post 3.99 EPS for the current year.

Murphy Oil Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Monday, August 19th were given a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 19th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.36%. Murphy Oil’s dividend payout ratio 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.