Piper Sandler Has Lowered Expectations for Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) Stock Price

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) had its price objective trimmed by Piper Sandler from $43.00 to $42.00 in a report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the oil and gas producer’s stock.

MUR has been the subject of a number of other reports. KeyCorp reduced their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 11th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $45.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Mizuho reduced their target price on Murphy Oil from $59.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Murphy Oil from $47.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $40.92.

Murphy Oil Stock Performance

NYSE MUR opened at $33.15 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $33.64 and a 200-day moving average price of $37.67. Murphy Oil has a 1 year low of $30.99 and a 1 year high of $49.14. The firm has a market cap of $4.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.69 and a beta of 2.21.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.76 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $758.33 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $759.74 million. Murphy Oil had a net margin of 14.78% and a return on equity of 9.22%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 21.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.59 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Murphy Oil will post 3.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Murphy Oil Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.62%. Murphy Oil’s payout ratio is currently 38.71%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MUR. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Murphy Oil by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,254,125 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $340,400,000 after purchasing an additional 262,256 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position 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 buying an additional 45,432 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC raised its stake in Murphy Oil by 7.7% in the first quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,737,409 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $125,100,000 after buying an additional 195,906 shares in the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Murphy Oil by 2.3% in the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 2,627,701 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $88,659,000 after buying an additional 58,220 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,138,985 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $88,212,000 after acquiring an additional 107,462 shares during the period. 78.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.