Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.33 Per Share

Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 30th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be given a dividend of 0.325 per share by the oil and gas producer on Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $1.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.47%. This is a boost from Murphy Oil’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30.

Murphy Oil has increased its dividend payment by an average of 33.9% per year over the last three years. Murphy Oil has a payout ratio of 28.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Murphy Oil to earn $3.53 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 34.0%.

Murphy Oil Price Performance

Murphy Oil stock opened at $29.09 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $30.97 and its two-hundred day moving average is $34.05. The firm has a market cap of $4.24 billion, a PE ratio of 9.39 and a beta of 2.17. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Murphy Oil has a 52-week low of $27.75 and a 52-week high of $49.14.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by ($0.02). Murphy Oil had a net margin of 14.78% and a return on equity of 9.22%. The company had revenue of $758.33 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $759.74 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.59 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 21.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Murphy Oil will post 3.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on MUR. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $44.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 7th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $38.00 to $34.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 9th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $50.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on Murphy Oil from $39.00 to $35.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $37.00 price target on shares of Murphy Oil in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.08.

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.