Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Trims Holdings in Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lowered its position in shares of Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) by 3.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 30,277 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 988 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Murphy Oil were worth $916,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MUR. Lindbrook Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 60.5% during the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,441 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 543 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its holdings in Murphy Oil by 32.9% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,284 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $69,000 after acquiring an additional 565 shares during the period. New Wave Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Murphy Oil in the fourth quarter valued at about $113,000. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund bought a new position in shares of Murphy Oil in the fourth quarter worth about $188,000. Finally, IFP Advisors Inc grew its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 67.5% during the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 6,337 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $192,000 after purchasing an additional 2,553 shares in the last quarter. 78.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Murphy Oil Price Performance

NYSE:MUR opened at $28.33 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.53 and a beta of 2.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.77. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $27.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $30.79. Murphy Oil Co. has a 1 year low of $22.90 and a 1 year high of $49.14.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 prior year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Murphy Oil Co. will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

Murphy Oil Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a dividend of $0.325 per share. This represents a $1.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.59%. This is an increase from Murphy Oil’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. Murphy Oil’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.33%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on MUR. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Murphy Oil in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Roth Capital set a $37.00 price target on shares of Murphy Oil in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Murphy Oil from $33.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Truist Financial downgraded Murphy Oil from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $31.00 in a research report on Friday, January 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.31.

Insider Activity at Murphy Oil

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