Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR – Get Rating) – Stock analysts at Capital One Financial have raised their third quarter 2022 earnings estimates for Murphy Oil in a research report released Tuesday, September 20. Capital One Financial analyst B. Velie now expects the oil and gas producer to post earnings of $1.82 per share for the quarter, up from its previous estimate of $1.66. The consensus estimate for Murphy Oil’s current annual earnings is $6.08 per share. Capital One Financial also released estimates for Murphy Oil’s fourth quarter 2022 earnings at $2.33 EPS, full year 2022 earnings at $6.81 EPS and first quarter 2023 earnings at $2.63 EPS.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR – Get Rating) last released its results on Thursday August 4th. The oil and gas producer reported EPS of $1.93 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.56 by $0.37. The company posted revenue of $1.10 billion in the quarter, versus a consensus estimate of $880.87 million. Murphy Oil had a net margin of 17.00% and a return on equity of 12.07%. The company’s revenue for the quarter increased by 100.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period a year earlier, the company posted earnings per share of $0.59.

Other analysts have also recently released reports on the stock. Piper Sandler lowered her price target on Murphy Oil shares from $49.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a Friday, July 22 research report. StockNews.com moved shares of Murphy Oil from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a Thursday, September 15 research report. Truist Financial raised its price target on Murphy Oil shares from $61.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a Thursday, September 15 research report. Mizuho cut his price target on Murphy Oil shares from $59.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a Tuesday, July 19 research note. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group raised its price target on Murphy Oil shares from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a Monday, August 22 research note. Four research analysts gave the stock a hold rating and five gave the company a buy rating. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.13.

Murphy Oil Stock Performance

MUR stock opened at $38.81 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt ratio of 0.51. The company has a market capitalization of $6.03 billion, a price-earnings ratio of 11.83 and a beta of 2.48. Murphy Oil has a 12-month low of $19.72 and a 12-month high of $45.79. The company has a 50-day moving average of $35.46 and a two-hundred-day moving average of $37.00.

Murphy Oil increases its dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 1. Investors of record on Monday August 15 received a dividend of $0.25 per share. This is a boost from Murphy Oil’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. This represents an annualized dividend of $1.00 and a yield of 2.58%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 12. Murphy Oil’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.49%.

Insider Activity at Murphy Oil

In related news, Director T Jay Collins sold 5,000 shares of the company in a trade on Tuesday, September 13. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.32, for a total transaction of $201,600.00. Following completion of the transaction, the administrator now directly owns 10,137 shares of the company, valued at approximately $408,723.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available on the SEC’s website. In related news, Director T Jay Collins sold 5,000 shares of the company in a trade on Tuesday, September 13. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.32, for a total transaction of $201,600.00. Following completion of the transaction, the administrator now directly owns 10,137 shares of the company, valued at approximately $408,723.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available on the SEC’s website. Additionally, Chief Financial Officer Thomas J. Mireles sold 5,540 shares of the company in a transaction on Monday, August 22. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.30, for a total transaction of $201,102.00. Following the transaction, the CFO now owns 51,758 shares of the company, valued at $1,878,815.40. The disclosure of this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 6.20% of the company’s shares.

Hedge funds weigh on Murphy Oil

A number of hedge funds have recently changed their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 4.4% in Q1. BlackRock Inc. now owns 17,444,116 shares of the oil and gas producer valued at $704,568,000 after buying an additional 729,319 shares last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 1.0% in Q1. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,156,012 shares of the oil and gas producer valued at $612,152,000 after buying an additional 147,302 shares last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 3.3% in Q1. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,584,994 shares of the oil and gas producer valued at $346,750,000 after buying an additional 276,213 shares last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,815,843 shares of the oil and gas producer valued at $315,682,000 after buying an additional 365,686 shares last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Murphy Oil shares by 9.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,748,445 shares of the oil and gas producer valued at $71,761,000 after purchasing an additional 238,692 shares last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds hold 77.38% of the company’s shares.

About Murphy Oil

(Get a rating)

Murphy Oil Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an oil and natural 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 previously known as Murphy Corporation and changed its name to Murphy Oil Corporation in 1964.

Read more

This instant alert was powered by MarketBeat’s narrative science technology and financial data to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reports. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat’s editorial team prior to publication. Please send questions or comments about this story to [email protected].

Before you consider Murphy Oil, you’ll want to hear this.

MarketBeat tracks daily the highest rated and most successful research analysts on Wall Street and the stocks they recommend to their clients. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the market takes off…and Murphy Oil wasn’t on the list.

Although Murphy Oil currently has a “moderate buy” rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.

See the five actions here