Forensic Analysis · Upstream Exploration & Production · as of Nov 9, 2026
Murphy Oil Corp (MUR)
A forensic read on Murphy Oil Corp built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
3.4
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
2.0%
ROE
-10.2%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Murphy Oil Corp earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.4, placing it in the Safe zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
2.7%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 2.7% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 9.5%. After-tax operating profit was $820M in FY2023 and $228M in FY2025, with operating income at 30.1% of revenue in FY2023, 19.9% in FY2024 and 11.1% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $8.6B in FY2023 to $8.3B in FY2025 (-3%), while the revenue it carried went from $3.5B to $2.7B. FY2025's operating profit carried a $115M asset write-down that alone took about 1.0 points off that year's return, so about 1.0 of the 6.8-point fall across FY2023–FY2025 is that charge landing in the latest year rather than the capital earning less. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
127% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $289M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 127% of free cash flow, but 23% of operating cash flow. Returns run ahead of free cash flow because the business is also funding heavy growth capex (usually debt-financed); the payout itself is covered by operating cash — sustainable as long as that spending is genuine expansion, not upkeep. Counting the $50M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 149%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$2.72B
Revenue Growth YoY-10.2%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-11.4%
Net Margin3.8%
Free Cash Flow$227.2M
Return on Equity2.0%
Debt / Equity0.27x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Murphy Oil Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?