Profund Advisors LLC Sells 1,201 Shares of Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR)

Profund Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) by 14.9% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 6,840 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 1,201 shares during the period. Profund Advisors LLC’s holdings in Murphy Oil were worth $282,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MUR. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Murphy Oil by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 48,261 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $2,059,000 after purchasing an additional 2,277 shares in the last quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 44,623.8% during the fourth quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,392 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $427,000 after buying an additional 9,371 shares during the period. Rafferty Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Murphy Oil by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 170,693 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $7,282,000 after buying an additional 12,050 shares during the period. Stephens Inc. AR boosted its position in Murphy Oil by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 167,307 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $7,137,000 after acquiring an additional 3,375 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Security National Bank raised its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Security National Bank now owns 197,560 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $8,428,000 after acquiring an additional 8,172 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.31% of the company’s stock.

Murphy Oil Price Performance

Shares of MUR opened at $33.74 on Friday. Murphy Oil Co. has a twelve month low of $32.53 and a twelve month high of $49.14. The company has a market capitalization of $5.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.40 and a beta of 2.21. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $36.89 and a 200 day moving average of $41.04. 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 (NYSE:MUR) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by $0.08. Murphy Oil had a return on equity of 11.68% and a net margin of 17.32%. The business had revenue of $802.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $813.97 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.79 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Murphy Oil Co. will post 3.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Murphy Oil Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 19th were given a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 19th. Murphy Oil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.43%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on MUR. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Murphy Oil from $41.00 to $39.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $43.00 to $39.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $54.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $59.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $47.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Murphy Oil presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $44.82.

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.