Summit Investment Advisors Inc. Sells 35,240 Shares of Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR)

Summit Investment Advisors Inc. reduced its position in shares of Murphy Oil Co. (NYSE:MUR) by 45.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 42,154 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 35,240 shares during the quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Murphy Oil were worth $1,276,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Huntington National Bank lifted its position in Murphy Oil by 342.8% during the fourth quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 828 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 641 shares during the last quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Murphy Oil by 60.5% in the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,441 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 543 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC grew its position in Murphy Oil by 32.9% in the fourth quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 1,903 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $58,000 after acquiring an additional 471 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in Murphy Oil by 32.9% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,284 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $69,000 after acquiring an additional 565 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd raised its position in Murphy Oil by 353.2% during the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 3,358 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $102,000 after purchasing an additional 2,617 shares during the period. 78.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Meenambigai Palanivelu bought 1,573 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the purchase, 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 acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Claiborne P. Deming purchased 50,000 shares of Murphy Oil stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $26.47 per share, for a total transaction of $1,323,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 931,651 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,660,801.97. This represents a 5.67 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 6.52% of the company’s stock.

Murphy Oil Price Performance

Shares of MUR stock opened at $20.60 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.66 and a beta of 1.68. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Murphy Oil Co. has a twelve month low of $18.95 and a twelve month high of $46.91. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $25.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $29.54.

Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.62 by ($0.27). Murphy Oil had a return on equity of 7.66% and a net margin of 13.44%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Murphy Oil Co. will post 2.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Murphy Oil Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.325 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.31%. Murphy Oil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.33%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MUR has been the topic of several analyst reports. Scotiabank cut their target price on Murphy Oil from $36.00 to $22.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Murphy Oil from $28.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Murphy Oil from $34.00 to $32.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. KeyCorp cut their price target 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $27.00 price objective on shares of Murphy Oil and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Murphy Oil presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $32.77.

Murphy Oil Company 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.