Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO) Price Target Lowered to $34.00 at Piper Sandler

Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO) had its price target lowered by Piper Sandler from $37.00 to $34.00 in a research note released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the oil and gas producer’s stock.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on MRO. Susquehanna cut their price objective on Marathon Oil from $39.00 to $37.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Mizuho cut their price objective on Marathon Oil from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 16th. Barclays cut their price objective on Marathon Oil from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Scotiabank upped their target price on Marathon Oil from $27.61 to $28.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on Marathon Oil from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Marathon Oil has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.94.

Marathon Oil Trading Up 1.4 %

NYSE:MRO opened at $28.99 on Monday. Marathon Oil has a 1 year low of $21.81 and a 1 year high of $30.06. The stock has a market cap of $16.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.44 and a beta of 2.16. The business has a fifty day moving average of $27.36 and a 200-day moving average of $27.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.69.

Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Marathon Oil had a return on equity of 12.80% and a net margin of 19.73%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.77 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Marathon Oil will post 2.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Marathon Oil Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be given a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. Marathon Oil’s payout ratio is currently 18.88%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Marathon Oil news, insider Dane E. Whitehead sold 52,008 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.50, for a total value of $1,430,220.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 100,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,750,000. This represents a 34.21 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Michael A. Henderson sold 38,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.21, for a total value of $1,033,980.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 76,828 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,090,489.88. This represents a 33.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.35% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Marathon Oil by 1,444.1% during the 3rd quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 266,970 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $7,109,000 after acquiring an additional 249,680 shares during the last quarter. Chiron Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Marathon Oil by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. Chiron Investment Management LLC now owns 9,206 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $245,000 after acquiring an additional 1,151 shares during the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Marathon Oil by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 40,752 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,090,000 after acquiring an additional 2,326 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of Marathon Oil by 8.8% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,490,171 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $39,683,000 after acquiring an additional 120,284 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Marathon Oil by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 273,434 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $7,282,000 after acquiring an additional 1,504 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.24% of the company’s stock.

About Marathon Oil

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.