Northern Trust Corp Trims Position in Murphy Oil Corporation $MUR

Key Points

• Northern Trust Corp has decreased its stake in Murphy Oil Corporation by 1.3%, selling 28,529 shares during the first quarter, leaving it with approximately 2.2 million shares valued at $62.65 million.
• Murphy Oil Corporation announced a quarterly dividend of $0.325 per share, which will be paid on September 2nd, 2024, giving a 5.4% dividend yield.
• The company recently reported earnings of $0.27 per share for the last quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations of $0.21, but showed a revenue decline of 13.4% year-over-year.

Northern Trust Corp lowered its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR - Free Report) by 1.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,206,056 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock after selling 28,529 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp owned approximately 1.55% of Murphy Oil worth $62,652,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in Murphy Oil by 34.6% during the first quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 12,893 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $366,000 after acquiring an additional 3,317 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Murphy Oil by 146.5% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,106 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $88,000 after acquiring an additional 1,846 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Murphy Oil by 14.2% during the first quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 214,258 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $6,085,000 after acquiring an additional 26,563 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Murphy Oil by 7,070.1% during the first 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 acquiring an additional 111,566 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacific Heights Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Murphy Oil by 350.0% during the first quarter. Pacific Heights Asset Management LLC now owns 450,000 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $12,780,000 after acquiring an additional 350,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.31% of the company's stock.

Murphy Oil Stock Performance

MUR traded up $0.18 during trading on Monday, hitting $24.93. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,395,750 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,286,989. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. Murphy Oil Corporation has a one year low of $18.94 and a one year high of $38.08. The firm has a market cap of $3.56 billion, a PE ratio of 12.92 and a beta of 1.15. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $24.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $23.90.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $695.57 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $632.51 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.81 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was down 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Murphy Oil Corporation will post 2.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Murphy Oil Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on MUR. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Mizuho downgraded shares of Murphy Oil from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $31.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Finally, Johnson Rice downgraded 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 given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and an average target price of $29.69.

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.