California State Teachers Retirement System Cuts Stock Position in Marathon Oil Co. (NYSE:MRO)

California State Teachers Retirement System trimmed its position in shares of Marathon Oil Co. (NYSE:MRO) by 6.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 788,714 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 58,735 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Marathon Oil were worth $22,352,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MRO. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Marathon Oil by 127.3% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,527,604 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $61,067,000 after purchasing an additional 1,415,639 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado boosted its stake in shares of Marathon Oil by 374.5% during the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 73,592 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,778,000 after acquiring an additional 58,081 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Marathon Oil by 137.1% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 304,331 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $7,353,000 after acquiring an additional 175,964 shares during the last quarter. Blackstone Inc. boosted its stake in Marathon Oil by 23.1% in the 4th quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 79,901 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,930,000 after buying an additional 15,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Westwood Holdings Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Marathon Oil in the 4th quarter worth about $5,051,000. 77.24% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MRO. Scotiabank lowered Marathon Oil from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Marathon Oil from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Capital One Financial downgraded Marathon Oil from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. StockNews.com began coverage on Marathon Oil in a research note on Friday, July 26th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Finally, Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and set a $32.00 price objective on shares of Marathon Oil in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $32.14.

Marathon Oil Price Performance

Shares of Marathon Oil stock traded down $0.34 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $27.71. 654,170 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,099,555. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $28.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $26.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.55 and a quick ratio of 0.48. Marathon Oil Co. has a 52 week low of $21.81 and a 52 week high of $30.06. The firm has a market cap of $15.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.59 and a beta of 2.19.

Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The oil and gas producer reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.55 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.56 billion. Marathon Oil had a return on equity of 13.24% and a net margin of 21.83%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.67 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Marathon Oil Co. will post 2.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Marathon Oil Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st will be paid a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.59%. Marathon Oil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 18.18%.

Marathon Oil Company Profile

Marathon Oil Corporation, an independent exploration and production company, engages in exploration, production, and marketing of crude oil and condensate, natural gas liquids, and natural gas in the United States and internationally. The company also produces and markets products manufactured from natural gas, such as liquefied natural gas and methanol.