HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC Decreases Position in Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR)

HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) by 77.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 124,358 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 421,568 shares during the period. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC owned approximately 0.09% of Murphy Oil worth $4,196,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings 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. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 2.3% during the 3rd 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 acquiring an additional 58,220 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 5.3% in 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 purchasing an additional 107,462 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 3,191.6% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,627,268 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $54,904,000 after buying an additional 1,577,831 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake 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 valued at $45,050,000 after purchasing an additional 518,904 shares during the period. 78.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MUR has been the topic of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $41.00 to $39.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $44.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 7th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $47.00 to $36.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $59.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Murphy Oil currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $40.92.

Murphy Oil Stock Down 0.3 %

MUR stock opened at $32.36 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $33.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.01. The company has a market cap of $4.72 billion, a PE ratio of 10.44 and a beta of 2.18. Murphy Oil Co. has a twelve month low of $30.99 and a twelve month high of $49.14.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by ($0.02). Murphy Oil had a net margin of 14.78% and a return on equity of 9.22%. The firm had revenue of $758.33 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $759.74 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.59 EPS. Murphy Oil’s quarterly revenue was down 21.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Murphy Oil Co. will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Murphy Oil Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th were issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 18th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.71%. Murphy Oil’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.71%.

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.