Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) Price Target Increased to $55.00 by Analysts at Piper Sandler

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) had its price target increased by investment analysts at Piper Sandler from $49.00 to $55.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the oil and gas producer’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 20.01% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on MUR. Scotiabank cut Murphy Oil from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $46.00 to $50.00 in a report on Thursday, April 11th. KeyCorp cut their target price on Murphy Oil from $53.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Murphy Oil in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Truist Financial raised their target price on Murphy Oil from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Murphy Oil from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.50.

Murphy Oil Stock Performance

NYSE:MUR traded up $0.64 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $45.83. 479,072 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,831,562. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.86 and a beta of 2.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.89. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.59. Murphy Oil has a fifty-two week low of $32.80 and a fifty-two week high of $49.14.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.00 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $844.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $852.24 million. Murphy Oil had a net margin of 19.12% and a return on equity of 13.02%. Murphy Oil’s revenue was down 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.10 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Murphy Oil will post 4.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Murphy Oil news, VP Maria A. Martinez sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.35, for a total transaction of $433,500.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 40,590 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,759,576.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, VP Maria A. Martinez sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.35, for a total value of $433,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 40,590 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,759,576.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Roger W. Jenkins sold 110,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.39, for a total transaction of $4,442,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,035,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $41,811,324.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 156,260 shares of company stock worth $6,322,644. Company insiders own 5.92% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Murphy Oil

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Murphy Oil by 73.5% in the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 21,212 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $857,000 after purchasing an additional 8,987 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 45.2% during the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 15,252 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $616,000 after purchasing an additional 4,749 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC increased its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 22.5% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 10,669 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $431,000 after purchasing an additional 1,961 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers grew its stake in Murphy Oil by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 446,302 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $18,026,000 after acquiring an additional 9,758 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS grew its stake in Murphy Oil by 10.5% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 53,213 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $2,149,000 after acquiring an additional 5,075 shares in the last quarter. 78.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.