Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) Hits New 12-Month High After Analyst Upgrade

Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Friday after Barclays upgraded the stock from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating. Barclays now has a $33.00 price target on the stock. Murphy Oil traded as high as $36.17 and last traded at $36.34, with a volume of 3737101 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $34.72.

MUR has been the subject of a number of other reports. Piper Sandler raised Murphy Oil from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $33.00 to $41.00 in a report on Thursday. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating on shares of Murphy Oil in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Murphy Oil from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $29.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Murphy Oil in a research report on Monday, December 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.45.

Insider Transactions at Murphy Oil

In other news, SVP Daniel R. Hanchera sold 47,320 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.79, for a total value of $1,598,942.80. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 36,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,222,049.14. This trade represents a 56.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 6.52% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Murphy Oil

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Murphy Oil by 61.8% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 22,495 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $704,000 after acquiring an additional 8,590 shares during the period. Flax Pond Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Murphy Oil in the 4th quarter worth $6,967,000. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group bought a new stake in Murphy Oil in the fourth quarter valued at about $233,000. TMB Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Murphy Oil in the fourth quarter valued at about $808,000. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its holdings in Murphy Oil by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 18,768 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $586,000 after buying an additional 1,873 shares during the last quarter. 78.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Murphy Oil Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $5.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.49 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $32.52 and a 200-day moving average price of $30.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.77.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.07) by $0.21. The business had revenue of $613.08 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $650.90 million. Murphy Oil had a net margin of 3.83% and a return on equity of 3.73%. Murphy Oil’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.35 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Murphy Oil Corporation will post 2.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Murphy Oil Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th were given a dividend of $0.35 per share. This is a positive change from Murphy Oil’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.33. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 17th. Murphy Oil’s payout ratio is 194.44%.

About Murphy Oil

Murphy Oil Corporation is an independent upstream oil and gas company engaged in the exploration, development and production of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. The company’s operations encompass conventional onshore and offshore reservoirs, with an emphasis on liquids-rich properties and deepwater assets. Through a combination of proprietary technologies and strategic joint ventures, Murphy Oil seeks to optimize recovery rates and manage its portfolio to balance long-term resource development with operational flexibility.

Murphy Oil’s exploration and production activities are geographically diversified.