Vestcor Inc Purchases New Position in Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR)

Vestcor Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 11,161 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $338,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MUR. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 837,282 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in Murphy Oil by 399.4% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,012,944 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $34,177,000 after purchasing an additional 810,104 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 26.7% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,595,260 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $53,824,000 after purchasing an additional 336,372 shares during the period. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC boosted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 28.4% during the 3rd quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 1,043,950 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $35,223,000 after purchasing an additional 231,007 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 80.5% during the fourth quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 337,769 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $10,221,000 after buying an additional 150,684 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.31% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MUR has been the subject of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $33.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Roth Capital set a $37.00 target price on Murphy Oil in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Truist Financial cut Murphy Oil from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $42.00 to $31.00 in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Murphy Oil in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and issued a $37.00 target price on shares of Murphy Oil in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.46.

Murphy Oil Stock Up 2.6 %

Shares of Murphy Oil stock opened at $26.73 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $28.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $31.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.90 billion, a PE ratio of 9.93 and a beta of 2.18. Murphy Oil Co. has a 52-week low of $22.90 and a 52-week high of $49.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.83.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business earned $0.90 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Murphy Oil Co. will post 2.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Murphy Oil Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a dividend of $0.325 per share. This is an increase from Murphy Oil’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. This represents a $1.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.86%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. Murphy Oil’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.33%.

Insider Activity at Murphy Oil

In related news, VP Meenambigai Palanivelu bought 1,573 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $26.70 per share, for a total transaction of $41,999.10. Following the purchase, the vice president now owns 37,065 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,635.50. This represents a 4.43 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Claiborne P. Deming purchased 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $26.47 per share, for a total transaction of $1,323,500.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 931,651 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,660,801.97. This trade represents a 5.67 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 5.92% of the stock is currently owned by 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.