Earnest Partners LLC Has $86.69 Million Holdings in Murphy Oil Corporation $MUR

Key Points

• Earnest Partners LLC has increased its stake in Murphy Oil Corporation by 3.6% during the first quarter, now holding over 3 million shares valued at approximately $86.7 million.
• Several institutional investors have significantly raised their stakes in Murphy Oil, with some increasing holdings by nearly 4,000%.
• Murphy Oil reported earnings per share of $0.27 for the last quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations, despite a 13.4% drop in revenue compared to the previous year.

Earnest Partners LLC raised its stake in Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR - Free Report) by 3.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,052,273 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock after buying an additional 106,720 shares during the quarter. Earnest Partners LLC owned about 2.14% of Murphy Oil worth $86,685,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MUR. Mariner LLC lifted its stake in Murphy Oil by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 28,585 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $865,000 after buying an additional 1,036 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 84.3% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 8,719 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $264,000 after purchasing an additional 3,987 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 120,816 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $3,657,000 after purchasing an additional 6,710 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 9.2% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 106,572 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $3,225,000 after purchasing an additional 8,984 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Voya Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 12.5% in the fourth quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 329,807 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $9,980,000 after purchasing an additional 36,600 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.31% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MUR has been the topic of a number of research reports. Roth Capital lowered shares of Murphy Oil from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $27.00 to $25.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Mizuho lowered shares of Murphy Oil from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $32.00 to $31.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, Johnson Rice lowered shares of Murphy Oil from an "accumulate" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Murphy Oil has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and an average price target of $29.69.

Murphy Oil Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MUR traded up $0.18 on Friday, hitting $24.93. The company had a trading volume of 1,395,750 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,333,971. Murphy Oil Corporation has a 1-year low of $18.94 and a 1-year high of $38.08. The stock has a market cap of $3.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.92 and a beta of 1.13. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $24.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $23.98. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.06. Murphy Oil had a net margin of 10.20% and a return on equity of 5.25%. The firm had revenue of $695.57 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $632.51 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.81 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was down 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Murphy Oil Corporation will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

Murphy Oil Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 18th will be issued a $0.325 dividend. This represents a $1.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.2%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 18th. Murphy Oil's payout ratio is currently 67.36%.

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.