Murphy Oil Co. to Post Q1 2024 Earnings of $0.92 Per Share, Zacks Research Forecasts (NYSE:MUR)

Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) – Research analysts at Zacks Research dropped their Q1 2024 earnings per share estimates for shares of Murphy Oil in a report issued on Friday, April 26th. Zacks Research analyst J. Saha now forecasts that the oil and gas producer will earn $0.92 per share for the quarter, down from their previous estimate of $0.95. The consensus estimate for Murphy Oil’s current full-year earnings is $4.74 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for Murphy Oil’s Q2 2024 earnings at $1.00 EPS, Q3 2024 earnings at $1.24 EPS, Q4 2024 earnings at $1.37 EPS, FY2024 earnings at $4.52 EPS, Q1 2025 earnings at $1.29 EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at $1.37 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $1.66 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $1.48 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $5.80 EPS, Q1 2026 earnings at $1.54 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $6.97 EPS.

MUR has been the topic of several other reports. Scotiabank downgraded Murphy Oil from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $46.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Truist Financial upped their target price on Murphy Oil from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Mizuho upped their target price on Murphy Oil from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. KeyCorp upped their target price on Murphy Oil from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Murphy Oil from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $50.64.

Murphy Oil Price Performance

NYSE MUR opened at $44.63 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $44.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $42.69. Murphy Oil has a 1 year low of $32.80 and a 1 year high of $49.14. The company has a market cap of $6.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.58 and a beta of 2.21.

Murphy Oil Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Monday, May 20th will be paid a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 17th. Murphy Oil’s dividend payout ratio is presently 28.44%.

Insider Activity at Murphy Oil

In other Murphy Oil news, VP Louis W. Utsch sold 30,260 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.94, for a total value of $1,208,584.40. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 9,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $379,589.76. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Murphy Oil news, VP Louis W. Utsch sold 30,260 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.94, for a total value of $1,208,584.40. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 9,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $379,589.76. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Paul D. Vaughan sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.61, for a total transaction of $237,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 11,877 shares in the company, valued at $470,447.97. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 156,260 shares of company stock valued at $6,322,644. 5.95% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Murphy Oil

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Murphy Oil by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,816,692 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $762,637,000 after purchasing an additional 137,059 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank acquired a new stake in Murphy Oil in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $4,937,000. Inspire Investing LLC increased its holdings in Murphy Oil by 21.1% in the 3rd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 31,974 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,450,000 after purchasing an additional 5,574 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System grew its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 1.4% in the third quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 42,223 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,915,000 after acquiring an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 0.3% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 557,463 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $25,281,000 after acquiring an additional 1,629 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.31% of the company’s stock.

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.