Marathon Petroleum Co. (NYSE:MPC) Shares Sold by EP Wealth Advisors LLC

EP Wealth Advisors LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Marathon Petroleum Co. (NYSE:MPC) by 0.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 15,264 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 96 shares during the quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Marathon Petroleum were worth $3,076,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in Marathon Petroleum by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 6,333 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,276,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Guidance Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in Marathon Petroleum by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Guidance Capital Inc. now owns 5,483 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,135,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Marathon Petroleum by 27.3% during the 1st quarter. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC now owns 275 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. First Financial Corp IN lifted its holdings in Marathon Petroleum by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. First Financial Corp IN now owns 2,429 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $489,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Finally, D Orazio & Associates Inc. lifted its holdings in Marathon Petroleum by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. D Orazio & Associates Inc. now owns 1,894 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $382,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. 76.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MPC has been the subject of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Marathon Petroleum from $223.00 to $196.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 12th. Barclays reduced their target price on Marathon Petroleum from $195.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 1st. Scotiabank reduced their target price on Marathon Petroleum from $207.00 to $191.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 12th. Raymond James reduced their target price on Marathon Petroleum from $235.00 to $230.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Marathon Petroleum from $191.00 to $186.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Marathon Petroleum presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $193.64.

Marathon Petroleum Stock Performance

NYSE MPC traded up $1.15 on Friday, hitting $172.65. 1,580,853 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,678,389. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $171.94 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $177.80. Marathon Petroleum Co. has a fifty-two week low of $128.07 and a fifty-two week high of $221.11. The firm has a market cap of $60.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.40.

Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The oil and gas company reported $2.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.53 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $32.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $32.07 billion. Marathon Petroleum had a return on equity of 25.87% and a net margin of 5.32%. The company’s revenue was down 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $6.09 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Marathon Petroleum Co. will post 13.84 EPS for the current year.

Marathon Petroleum declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, April 30th that authorizes the company to buyback $5.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the oil and gas company to reacquire up to 7.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

About Marathon Petroleum

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.