Grace & White Inc. NY Grows Holdings in Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR)

Grace & White Inc. NY boosted its position in Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) by 6.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 151,052 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after buying an additional 9,100 shares during the quarter. Grace & White Inc. NY’s holdings in Murphy Oil were worth $4,571,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Covestor Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 266.8% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 741 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 539 shares in the last quarter. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Murphy Oil during the third quarter worth $27,000. Compass Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Murphy Oil in the third quarter worth $42,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Murphy Oil by 90.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 1,758 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 833 shares during the period. Finally, Signaturefd LLC increased its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 28.8% during the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 3,143 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $106,000 after purchasing an additional 702 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.31% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Murphy Oil

In related news, Director Claiborne P. Deming purchased 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $26.47 per share, with a total value of $1,323,500.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 931,651 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,660,801.97. This represents a 5.67 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, VP Meenambigai Palanivelu purchased 1,573 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $26.70 per share, for a total transaction of $41,999.10. Following the acquisition, the vice president now directly owns 37,065 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,635.50. The trade was a 4.43 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 5.92% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MUR. Morgan Stanley reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $37.00 price target on shares of Murphy Oil in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $35.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Mizuho reduced their target price 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 lowered their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $39.00 to $35.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their price objective on Murphy Oil from $50.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.33.

Murphy Oil Price Performance

Murphy Oil stock opened at $27.71 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.30 and a beta of 2.14. Murphy Oil Co. has a one year low of $25.26 and a one year high of $49.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.77. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $29.87 and a 200-day moving average price of $33.06.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.62 by ($0.27). Murphy Oil had a net margin of 13.44% and a return on equity of 7.66%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Murphy Oil Co. will post 3.21 EPS for the current year.

Murphy Oil Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be given a dividend of $0.325 per share. This is a positive change from Murphy Oil’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. This represents a $1.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. Murphy Oil’s payout ratio is 44.61%.

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.