Piper Sandler Lowers Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) Price Target to $44.00

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) had its target price reduced by Piper Sandler from $54.00 to $44.00 in a report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the oil and gas producer’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on MUR. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Murphy Oil from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and lowered their price target for the company from $50.00 to $47.00 in a report on Thursday. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $49.00 to $45.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday, May 13th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $54.00 to $46.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 12th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $48.36.

Murphy Oil Stock Down 0.4 %

NYSE:MUR opened at $37.43 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $39.76 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.77. The firm has a market cap of $5.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.43 and a beta of 2.25. Murphy Oil has a fifty-two week low of $35.61 and a fifty-two week high of $49.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.93.

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 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $802.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $813.97 million. Murphy Oil had a net margin of 16.40% and a return on equity of 11.75%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.79 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Murphy Oil will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Murphy Oil Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 19th will be paid a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 19th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.21%. Murphy Oil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.43%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Murphy Oil

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MUR. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 2.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 207,547 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 11.9% during the 4th quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 164,568 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $7,020,000 after buying an additional 17,556 shares in the last quarter. Duality Advisers LP lifted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 364.6% during the 1st quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 113,451 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $5,185,000 after buying an additional 89,032 shares in the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Murphy Oil by 138.8% in the 1st quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 29,702 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,357,000 after buying an additional 17,265 shares during the period. Finally, DRW Securities LLC increased its stake in Murphy Oil by 280.0% in the 4th quarter. DRW Securities LLC now owns 72,200 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $3,080,000 after buying an additional 53,201 shares in the last quarter. 78.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.