BMO Capital Markets Cuts Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) Price Target to $40.00

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) had its target price cut by stock analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $42.00 to $40.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “market perform” rating on the oil and gas producer’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ price target indicates a potential upside of 11.45% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on MUR. StockNews.com lowered Murphy Oil from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Barclays dropped their price target on Murphy Oil from $46.00 to $38.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Murphy Oil from $43.00 to $39.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Murphy Oil in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Murphy Oil from $47.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Murphy Oil presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $42.67.

Murphy Oil Price Performance

Shares of Murphy Oil stock traded up $0.28 on Friday, hitting $35.89. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 577,234 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,684,840. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.82. Murphy Oil has a 1 year low of $32.53 and a 1 year high of $49.14. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $36.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $40.80. The company has a market capitalization of $5.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.99 and a beta of 2.19.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.08. Murphy Oil had a return on equity of 11.68% and a net margin of 17.32%. The company had revenue of $802.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $813.97 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.79 EPS. Murphy Oil’s quarterly revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Murphy Oil will post 3.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Duality Advisers LP boosted its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 364.6% during the first quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 113,451 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $5,185,000 after buying an additional 89,032 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 138.8% during the first quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 29,702 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,357,000 after buying an additional 17,265 shares during the period. DRW Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 280.0% during the fourth quarter. DRW Securities LLC now owns 72,200 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $3,080,000 after buying an additional 53,201 shares during the period. Invenomic Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Murphy Oil during the fourth quarter worth $16,349,000. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 4.0% during the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 15,642 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $715,000 after buying an additional 599 shares during the period. 78.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.