Wall Street Zen Upgrades Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) to Hold

Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on MPC. Raymond James lowered their price objective on shares of Marathon Petroleum from $193.00 to $183.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Marathon Petroleum from $142.00 to $152.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Marathon Petroleum from $175.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Marathon Petroleum from $175.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Marathon Petroleum from $160.00 to $156.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $175.29.

Marathon Petroleum Price Performance

MPC stock opened at $159.18 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $141.58 and a 200-day moving average of $146.05. Marathon Petroleum has a 12-month low of $115.10 and a 12-month high of $183.31. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The company has a market cap of $48.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.03, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.87.

Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The oil and gas company reported ($0.24) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.40) by $0.16. The company had revenue of $31.85 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $28.91 billion. Marathon Petroleum had a return on equity of 12.07% and a net margin of 2.45%. Marathon Petroleum’s quarterly revenue was down 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.58 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Marathon Petroleum will post 8.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Ricky D. Hessling acquired 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was bought at an average price of $134.72 per share, with a total value of $269,440.00. Following the purchase, the insider now directly owns 12,162 shares in the company, valued at $1,638,464.64. The trade was a 19.68% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Evan Bayh acquired 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $133.70 per share, with a total value of $133,700.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 69,305 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,266,078.50. The trade was a 1.46% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Marathon Petroleum

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of MPC. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Marathon Petroleum by 78.1% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,961,503 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,389,630,000 after purchasing an additional 4,367,774 shares during the period. Demars Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Marathon Petroleum by 16,338.3% in the fourth quarter. Demars Financial Group LLC now owns 4,177,133 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $582,710,000 after acquiring an additional 4,151,722 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Marathon Petroleum by 12.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,941,391 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $5,090,611,000 after acquiring an additional 3,834,501 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Marathon Petroleum in the fourth quarter valued at $453,427,000. Finally, Boston Partners grew its holdings in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 58.5% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,448,514 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $791,274,000 after purchasing an additional 2,011,810 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.77% of the company’s stock.

Marathon Petroleum Company Profile

Marathon Petroleum Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated downstream energy company primarily in the United States. The company operates through Refining & Marketing, and Midstream segments. The Refining & Marketing segment refines crude oil and other feedstocks at its refineries in the Gulf Coast, Mid-Continent, and West Coast regions of the United States; and purchases refined products and ethanol for resale and distributes refined products, including renewable diesel, through transportation, storage, distribution, and marketing services.