Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) Stake Cut by Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV cut its position in shares of Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) by 25.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 9,241 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 3,119 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV’s holdings in Murphy Oil were worth $280,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MUR. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in Murphy Oil by 399.4% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,012,944 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $34,177,000 after purchasing an additional 810,104 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in Murphy Oil by 21.2% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 7,881 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $238,000 after purchasing an additional 1,379 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its stake in Murphy Oil by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 733,874 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $22,207,000 after purchasing an additional 61,157 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its stake in Murphy Oil by 59.8% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 6,835 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $207,000 after purchasing an additional 2,559 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its stake in Murphy Oil by 50.9% in the fourth quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 11,467 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $347,000 after buying an additional 3,870 shares during the last quarter. 78.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MUR has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group cut their target price on Murphy Oil from $28.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 7th. KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Murphy Oil in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Mizuho cut Murphy Oil from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $32.00 to $31.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley set a $27.00 target price on Murphy Oil and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Murphy Oil from $31.00 to $26.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Murphy Oil presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.31.

Murphy Oil Price Performance

Shares of MUR opened at $22.53 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.38 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.83. Murphy Oil Co. has a one year low of $18.95 and a one year high of $43.98. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $23.38 and its 200-day moving average is $27.72.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $665.71 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $684.89 million. Murphy Oil had a return on equity of 7.66% and a net margin of 13.44%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 15.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.85 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Murphy Oil Co. will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

Murphy Oil Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.325 per share. This represents a $1.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. Murphy Oil’s payout ratio is currently 50.00%.

Murphy Oil 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.