Swiss National Bank Sells 1,000 Shares of Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR)

Swiss National Bank reduced its stake in shares of Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 281,900 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 1,000 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Murphy Oil were worth $8,530,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MUR. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 14.5% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 4,276 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $144,000 after buying an additional 540 shares during the last quarter. Commerce Bank boosted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 34.0% in the 3rd quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 14,843 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $501,000 after buying an additional 3,763 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 138.6% in the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 187,085 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $6,312,000 after buying an additional 108,672 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 130.5% in the 3rd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 118,519 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $3,999,000 after buying an additional 67,105 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 14.5% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 605,557 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $20,431,000 after buying an additional 76,487 shares during the last quarter. 78.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Murphy Oil Trading Down 0.4 %

NYSE:MUR opened at $26.73 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.93 and a beta of 2.18. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $27.88 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $30.98. Murphy Oil Co. has a 1 year low of $22.90 and a 1 year high of $49.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.77.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last posted 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 period in the previous year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Murphy Oil Co. will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

Murphy Oil Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were given a $0.325 dividend. This represents a $1.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This is an increase from Murphy Oil’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. Murphy Oil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.33%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MUR has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Roth Capital set a $37.00 target price on Murphy Oil in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. KeyCorp cut their target price on Murphy Oil from $50.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Barclays dropped their price objective on Murphy Oil from $34.00 to $32.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Truist Financial downgraded Murphy Oil from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $42.00 to $31.00 in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on Murphy Oil from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Murphy Oil presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.31.

Insider Buying and Selling

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