Kentucky Retirement Systems Purchases New Stake in Murphy Oil Corporation $MUR

Kentucky Retirement Systems purchased a new stake in shares of Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR) in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 14,511 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $599,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MUR. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Murphy Oil in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Leonteq Securities AG bought a new position in shares of Murphy Oil in the first quarter valued at about $29,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 14,700.0% during the 1st quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 740 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 735 shares during the last quarter. Torren Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Murphy Oil during the 4th quarter worth about $37,000. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 72.9% during the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,701 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $53,000 after buying an additional 717 shares during the last quarter. 78.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Murphy Oil Price Performance

NYSE:MUR opened at $39.76 on Friday. Murphy Oil Corporation has a 52 week low of $21.86 and a 52 week high of $43.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.83. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $36.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.15. The firm has a market cap of $5.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.38 and a beta of 0.52.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.03. Murphy Oil had a net margin of 3.02% and a return on equity of 3.09%. The firm had revenue of $732.35 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $702.96 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Murphy Oil Corporation will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $44.00 to $41.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Murphy Oil from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 27th. Roth Capital restated a “neutral” rating and set a $36.00 price objective on shares of Murphy Oil in a report on Thursday, May 7th. KeyCorp raised Murphy Oil from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $48.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered Murphy Oil from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Murphy Oil has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.33.

Murphy Oil Profile

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.