Wall Street Zen Downgrades Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) to Sell

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) was downgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report released on Saturday.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Zacks Research upgraded Murphy Oil from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Murphy Oil in a report on Monday, December 29th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $28.00 to $27.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and set a $34.00 price target on shares of Murphy Oil in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Murphy Oil has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $29.58.

Murphy Oil Trading Down 0.6%

NYSE MUR opened at $32.54 on Friday. Murphy Oil has a 52 week low of $18.94 and a 52 week high of $34.52. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $31.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $27.75. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The firm has a market cap of $4.65 billion, a PE ratio of 33.21 and a beta of 0.78.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 21st. The oil and gas producer reported ($0.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $440.08 million during the quarter. Murphy Oil had a return on equity of 4.30% and a net margin of 5.16%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Murphy Oil will post 2.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Murphy Oil

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its holdings in Murphy Oil by 60.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 2,119,622 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $60,218,000 after purchasing an additional 794,510 shares during the period. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Murphy Oil in the second quarter valued at approximately $367,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 10.1% in the second quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 124,614 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $2,804,000 after buying an additional 11,470 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 7.0% during the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,766,534 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $107,247,000 after buying an additional 312,904 shares during the period. Finally, Paragon Capital Management Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Murphy Oil during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $204,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.31% of the company’s stock.

About Murphy Oil

Murphy Oil Corporation is an independent upstream oil and gas company engaged in the exploration, development and production of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. The company’s operations encompass conventional onshore and offshore reservoirs, with an emphasis on liquids-rich properties and deepwater assets. Through a combination of proprietary technologies and strategic joint ventures, Murphy Oil seeks to optimize recovery rates and manage its portfolio to balance long-term resource development with operational flexibility.

Murphy Oil’s exploration and production activities are geographically diversified.