Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) Plans Dividend Increase – $0.33 Per Share

Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 30th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of 0.325 per share by the oil and gas producer on Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $1.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.89%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. This is a positive change from Murphy Oil’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30.

Murphy Oil has raised its dividend by an average of 33.9% per year over the last three years. Murphy Oil has a dividend payout ratio of 28.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Murphy Oil to earn $3.53 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 34.0%.

Murphy Oil Stock Down 3.3 %

NYSE MUR opened at $26.57 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $30.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.65. Murphy Oil has a one year low of $26.47 and a one year high of $49.14. The firm has a market cap of $3.88 billion, a PE ratio of 8.57 and a beta of 2.17.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by ($0.27). Murphy Oil had a return on equity of 9.22% and a net margin of 14.78%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.90 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Murphy Oil will post 2.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on MUR. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Murphy Oil from $39.00 to $35.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Murphy Oil from $50.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 16th. KeyCorp reduced their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $44.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $38.00 to $34.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Murphy Oil presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $37.83.

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.