Hilltop National Bank Takes $161,000 Position in Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR)

Hilltop National Bank bought a new stake in shares of Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 3,519 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $161,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,816,692 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $762,637,000 after purchasing an additional 137,059 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,861,968 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $335,397,000 after acquiring an additional 207,547 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 3,904.6% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,090,904 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $89,198,000 after purchasing an additional 2,038,692 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,777,408 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $75,824,000 after purchasing an additional 45,236 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 23.0% in the 1st quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,132,305 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $51,746,000 after purchasing an additional 212,100 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Murphy Oil from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Murphy Oil from $49.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Murphy Oil in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Barclays initiated coverage on Murphy Oil in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $54.00 target price for the company. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Murphy Oil from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $50.73.

Murphy Oil Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE MUR traded up $0.11 during trading on Friday, reaching $41.38. 802,933 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,206,990. Murphy Oil Co. has a fifty-two week low of $36.95 and a fifty-two week high of $49.14. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The firm has a market cap of $6.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.53 and a beta of 2.25. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $41.43 and its 200 day moving average price is $41.92.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $794.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $750.94 million. Murphy Oil had a net margin of 16.40% and a return on equity of 11.75%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.24 EPS. Analysts predict that Murphy Oil Co. will post 4.23 EPS for the current year.

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.