New Age Alpha Advisors LLC Grows Position in Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR)

Key Points

• New Age Alpha Advisors LLC increased its stake in Murphy Oil Corporation by 40.3% during the first quarter, acquiring an additional 41,892 shares for a total of 145,926 shares valued at approximately $4.14 million.
• Murphy Oil recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.325 per share, which amounts to an annualized yield of 5.5%, and the payout ratio stands at 50%.
• Recent analyst ratings indicate a consensus of "Hold" for Murphy Oil, with an average price target of $29.46 following changes in evaluations from several investment firms.

New Age Alpha Advisors LLC increased its position in Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR - Free Report) by 40.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 145,926 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock after purchasing an additional 41,892 shares during the quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.10% of Murphy Oil worth $4,144,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cerity Partners LLC raised its stake in Murphy Oil by 18.6% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 9,576 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $304,000 after buying an additional 1,503 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 146.5% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,106 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $88,000 after purchasing an additional 1,846 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 14.2% in the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 214,258 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $6,085,000 after purchasing an additional 26,563 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 7,070.1% in the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 113,144 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $3,210,000 after purchasing an additional 111,566 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacific Heights Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 350.0% in the 1st quarter. Pacific Heights Asset Management LLC now owns 450,000 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $12,780,000 after purchasing an additional 350,000 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.31% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MUR has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays lifted their target price on Murphy Oil from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Monday, July 7th. Mizuho lowered Murphy Oil from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $31.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. KeyCorp reissued a "sector weight" rating on shares of Murphy Oil in a report on Monday, April 21st. Wells Fargo & Company set a $24.00 target price on Murphy Oil and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Johnson Rice lowered Murphy Oil from an "accumulate" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $29.46.

Murphy Oil Stock Performance

Shares of MUR traded up $0.35 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $23.21. The stock had a trading volume of 2,227,753 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,278,636. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.31 billion, a PE ratio of 12.03 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $24.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $24.46. Murphy Oil Corporation has a 12 month low of $18.94 and a 12 month high of $39.46.

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

Murphy Oil Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, August 18th will be given a dividend of $0.325 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 18th. This represents a $1.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.6%. Murphy Oil's payout ratio is 67.36%.

Murphy Oil 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.