Texas Permanent School Fund Corp Has $7.63 Million Holdings in Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR)

Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lifted its holdings in Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) by 45.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 184,899 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 57,940 shares during the quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp’s holdings in Murphy Oil were worth $7,625,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MUR. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 90.5% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,092,374 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $45,050,000 after acquiring an additional 518,904 shares in the last quarter. Invenomic Capital Management LP bought a new position in Murphy Oil in the 4th quarter worth approximately $16,349,000. Heartland Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Murphy Oil in the 4th quarter worth approximately $12,988,000. F M Investments LLC bought a new position in Murphy Oil in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $10,182,000. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its position in Murphy Oil by 23.0% in the 1st quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,132,305 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $51,746,000 after purchasing an additional 212,100 shares during the last quarter. 78.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on MUR. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $49.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. StockNews.com cut shares of Murphy Oil from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Murphy Oil from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $50.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $54.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $47.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Murphy Oil has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.91.

Murphy Oil Price Performance

MUR opened at $33.97 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. Murphy Oil Co. has a 12 month low of $33.35 and a 12 month high of $49.14. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $38.58 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.54. The stock has a market cap of $5.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.46 and a beta of 2.21.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by $0.08. Murphy Oil had a net margin of 17.32% and a return on equity of 11.68%. The business had revenue of $802.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $813.97 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.79 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Murphy Oil Co. will post 3.99 EPS for the current year.

Murphy Oil Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Monday, August 19th were given a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.53%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 19th. Murphy Oil’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.43%.

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.