Greenwich Wealth Management LLC Buys 4,340 Shares of Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR)

Greenwich Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) by 27.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 19,996 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,340 shares during the period. Greenwich Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Murphy Oil were worth $605,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 1.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,548,711 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $119,755,000 after purchasing an additional 45,432 shares in the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 2.3% during the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 2,627,701 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $88,659,000 after purchasing an additional 58,220 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,857,702 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $56,214,000 after purchasing an additional 13,263 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 91.6% during the fourth quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,751,737 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $53,008,000 after purchasing an additional 837,282 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 26.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,595,260 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $53,824,000 after purchasing an additional 336,372 shares in the last quarter. 78.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on MUR shares. Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Murphy Oil in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Murphy Oil in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Roth Capital set a $37.00 target price on shares of Murphy Oil in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $50.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.46.

Murphy Oil Trading Up 4.7 %

NYSE MUR opened at $26.06 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $28.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $31.31. The stock has a market cap of $3.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.69 and a beta of 2.18. Murphy Oil Co. has a 12-month low of $22.90 and a 12-month high of $49.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.62 by ($0.27). Murphy Oil had a return on equity of 7.66% and a net margin of 13.44%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Murphy Oil Co. will post 2.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Murphy Oil Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a dividend of $0.325 per share. This represents a $1.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This is a boost from Murphy Oil’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. Murphy Oil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Murphy Oil news, VP Meenambigai Palanivelu bought 1,573 shares of Murphy Oil stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $26.70 per share, with a total value of $41,999.10. Following the completion of the acquisition, the vice president now directly owns 37,065 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,635.50. This trade represents a 4.43 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Claiborne P. Deming purchased 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $26.47 per share, for a total transaction of $1,323,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 931,651 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,660,801.97. This trade represents a 5.67 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 5.95% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.