Murphy Oil Falls To Loss In Q4

(RTTNews) - Murphy Oil Corp. (MUR) Thursday reported a swing to loss in the fourth quarter. The company reported loss attributable to the company of $71.724 million compared to profit attributable of $103.379 million in the prior year. On a per share basis, loss was $0.46, while it recorded earnings of $0.60 in the comparable prior year.

On an adjusted basis, earnings were $25 million or $0.16 per share. On average, 15 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.17 per share. Analysts estimates usually exclude special items.

Revenue for the quarter increased to $637.480 million from $503.638 million in the previous year. The cost and expenses for the period surged to $674.22 million from $452.19 million in the prior year. Wall Street was looking for quarterly revenue of $771.25 million.

Murphy had closed the Malaysia asset divestiture in the third quarter for $2.0 billion in cash proceeds. Loss from continuing operations were $91.27 million compared to profit of $47.61 million a year ago.