Northern Trust Corp Cuts Stake 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 lessened its stake in Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR - Free Report) by 1.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 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.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MUR. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Murphy Oil by 210.8% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,610,766 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $159,346,000 after buying an additional 3,805,565 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 8,530.7% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,763,345 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $50,079,000 after purchasing an additional 1,742,914 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management boosted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 29.4% in the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 3,633,023 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $103,178,000 after purchasing an additional 825,746 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 61.9% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,147,590 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $64,986,000 after purchasing an additional 821,427 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Murphy Oil in the 1st quarter valued at $16,189,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.31% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MUR. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Johnson Rice cut shares of Murphy Oil from an "accumulate" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Wells Fargo & Company set a $24.00 price objective on shares of Murphy Oil and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Mizuho cut shares of Murphy Oil from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $31.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Monday, July 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and a consensus price target of $29.69.

Murphy Oil Trading Up 0.7%

NYSE MUR traded up $0.18 during trading 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. 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 Corporation has a one year low of $18.94 and a one year high of $38.08. The company has a market cap of $3.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.92 and a beta of 1.13. The company's fifty day moving average is $24.21 and its 200-day moving average is $23.98.

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, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $695.57 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $632.51 million. Murphy Oil had a net margin of 10.20% and a return on equity of 5.25%. The company's revenue was down 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.81 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Murphy Oil Corporation will post 2.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Murphy Oil Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 18th will be given 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 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.