Earnest Partners LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Murphy Oil Corporation $MUR

Earnest Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR) by 3.6% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,052,273 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after purchasing an additional 106,720 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC’s holdings in Murphy Oil were worth $86,685,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MUR. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 210.8% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,610,766 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $159,346,000 after buying an additional 3,805,565 shares during the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 72.9% during the first quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 4,812,267 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $136,668,000 after buying an additional 2,029,685 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 8,530.7% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,763,345 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $50,079,000 after buying an additional 1,742,914 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management grew its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 29.4% during the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 3,633,023 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $103,178,000 after buying an additional 825,746 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 61.9% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,147,590 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $64,986,000 after buying an additional 821,427 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MUR has been the topic of several research reports. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 14th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $24.00 target price on shares of Murphy Oil and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 7th. Mizuho cut shares of Murphy Oil from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $31.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $29.69.

Murphy Oil Stock Down 1.8%

MUR opened at $23.93 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. Murphy Oil Corporation has a 1-year low of $18.94 and a 1-year high of $38.67. The company has a market capitalization of $3.42 billion, a PE ratio of 12.40 and a beta of 1.13. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $24.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $24.03.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $695.57 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $632.51 million. Murphy Oil had a net margin of 10.20% and a return on equity of 5.25%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.81 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Murphy Oil Corporation will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

Murphy Oil Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 18th will be given a dividend of $0.325 per share. This represents a $1.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 18th. Murphy Oil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 67.36%.

Murphy Oil 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.