Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) Given New $44.00 Price Target at Piper Sandler

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

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Truist Financial lowered their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $59.00 to $55.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $49.00 to $45.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Scotiabank lowered shares of Murphy Oil from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Murphy Oil from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Murphy Oil from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $50.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Thursday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $48.36.

Murphy Oil Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE MUR opened at $37.43 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.74. Murphy Oil has a 52-week low of $35.61 and a 52-week high of $49.14. The firm has a market cap of $5.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.43 and a beta of 2.25. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.08. Murphy Oil had a net margin of 16.40% and a return on equity of 11.75%. The business had revenue of $802.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $813.97 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.79 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Murphy Oil will post 4.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Murphy Oil Announces Dividend

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Murphy Oil

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MUR. Quarry LP raised its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 102.9% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 70,244 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $2,897,000 after acquiring an additional 35,621 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 16.2% in the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 3,140 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $129,000 after acquiring an additional 438 shares during the period. Creative Planning raised its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 15.9% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 36,892 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,521,000 after acquiring an additional 5,068 shares during the period. Algert Global LLC raised its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 181,023 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $7,465,000 after acquiring an additional 8,971 shares during the period. Finally, Scientech Research LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Murphy Oil in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $350,000. 78.31% of the stock is 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.