Legal & General Group Plc Acquires 2,691 Shares of Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR)

Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) by 1.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 255,384 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,691 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Murphy Oil were worth $7,728,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,857,702 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $56,214,000 after purchasing an additional 13,263 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its position in shares of Murphy Oil by 91.6% during the fourth quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,751,737 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $53,008,000 after acquiring an additional 837,282 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Murphy Oil by 20.4% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,674,590 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $50,673,000 after acquiring an additional 283,695 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Murphy Oil by 26.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,595,260 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $53,824,000 after acquiring an additional 336,372 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in Murphy Oil by 108.2% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,529,528 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $46,284,000 after purchasing an additional 794,730 shares during the last quarter. 78.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Meenambigai Palanivelu acquired 1,573 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $26.70 per share, with a total value of $41,999.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 37,065 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $989,635.50. This represents a 4.43 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Claiborne P. Deming acquired 50,000 shares of Murphy Oil stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $26.47 per share, with a total value of $1,323,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 931,651 shares in the company, valued at $24,660,801.97. This represents a 5.67 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 6.52% of the company’s stock.

Murphy Oil Trading Up 3.6 %

Shares of Murphy Oil stock opened at $21.32 on Friday. Murphy Oil Co. has a 12-month low of $18.95 and a 12-month high of $46.91. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The business’s 50 day moving average is $25.38 and its 200-day moving average is $29.36. The stock has a market cap of $3.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.93 and a beta of 1.68.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 last year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Murphy Oil Co. will post 2.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Murphy Oil Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.325 per share. This represents a $1.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. Murphy Oil’s dividend payout ratio is 48.33%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on MUR shares. KeyCorp cut their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $50.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Murphy Oil from $28.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Roth Capital set a $37.00 target price on Murphy Oil in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Scotiabank reduced their target price on Murphy Oil from $36.00 to $22.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $27.00 price target on Murphy Oil and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $32.77.

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.