Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:MPC) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:MPC) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the nineteen brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nine have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $219.1875.

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Scotiabank upgraded Marathon Petroleum to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Barclays cut their price target on Marathon Petroleum from $202.00 to $194.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Weiss Ratings cut Marathon Petroleum from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Marathon Petroleum from $198.00 to $299.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Marathon Petroleum from $216.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 26th.

Marathon Petroleum Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MPC opened at $241.81 on Tuesday. Marathon Petroleum has a 12-month low of $115.10 and a 12-month high of $255.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $71.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.51 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $212.32 and a 200 day moving average of $194.47.

Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The oil and gas company reported $4.07 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.73 by $0.34. The business had revenue of $32.57 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.89 billion. Marathon Petroleum had a net margin of 2.99% and a return on equity of 13.90%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.77 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Marathon Petroleum will post 8.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Marathon Petroleum Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 10th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 18th were paid a $1.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 18th. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. Marathon Petroleum’s dividend payout ratio is 29.96%.

Insider Activity at Marathon Petroleum

In related news, insider Ricky D. Hessling sold 1,626 shares of Marathon Petroleum stock in a transaction on Friday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.18, for a total transaction of $371,020.68. Following the transaction, the insider owned 7,525 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,717,054.50. The trade was a 17.77% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 4,473 shares of company stock worth $1,015,428. 0.17% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Marathon Petroleum

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Marathon Petroleum in the 4th quarter worth approximately $472,312,000. Capital Wealth Planning LLC raised its position in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 49,392.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 1,498,124 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $245,157,000 after buying an additional 1,495,097 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 3,816.8% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,306,749 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $212,517,000 after buying an additional 1,273,386 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 27,979.8% in the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 659,595 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $109,565,000 after buying an additional 657,246 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 217.8% during the second quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 883,763 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $146,802,000 after acquiring an additional 605,705 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.77% of the company’s stock.

Marathon Petroleum Company Profile

Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: MPC) is a U.S.-based downstream energy company engaged principally in the refining, marketing, supply and transportation of petroleum products. The company was formed through a spin-off from Marathon Oil in 2011 and operates an integrated system of refining and logistics assets that support the production and distribution of transportation fuels and other refined petroleum products.

Marathon Petroleum’s operations include refining crude oil into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, asphalt and other specialty products, as well as managing the distribution and storage infrastructure needed to move those products to market.