Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) Price Target Cut to $39.00

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) had its price objective cut by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $43.00 to $39.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the oil and gas producer’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target points to a potential upside of 14.50% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research firms have also commented on MUR. Wolfe Research began coverage on Murphy Oil in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Murphy Oil from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $59.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $54.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, UBS Group reduced 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. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Murphy Oil currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.55.

Murphy Oil Price Performance

Shares of MUR stock traded down $0.11 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $34.06. The stock had a trading volume of 512,579 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,661,735. The company has a market cap of $5.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.49 and a beta of 2.21. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. Murphy Oil has a 12-month low of $33.15 and a 12-month high of $49.14. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $38.17 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.42.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.08. Murphy Oil had a net margin of 17.32% and a return on equity of 11.68%. The firm had revenue of $802.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $813.97 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.79 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Murphy Oil will post 3.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Murphy Oil

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MUR. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Murphy Oil by 3.3% in the second 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 buying an additional 262,256 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC increased its position in Murphy Oil by 7.7% in the 1st quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,737,409 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $125,100,000 after acquiring an additional 195,906 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in 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 valued at $88,212,000 after acquiring an additional 107,462 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its stake in Murphy Oil by 23.0% during the 1st quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,132,305 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $51,746,000 after acquiring an additional 212,100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in Murphy Oil by 90.5% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,092,374 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $45,050,000 after acquiring an additional 518,904 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.31% of the company’s stock.

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.