Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO) Earns Buy Rating from Analysts at StockNews.com

StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO) in a research note published on Saturday. The brokerage issued a buy rating on the oil and gas producer’s stock.

Several other research analysts also recently issued reports on MRO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Marathon Oil from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Marathon Oil from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on Marathon Oil from $35.00 to $27.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 30th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Marathon Oil from $37.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Marathon Oil from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $30.94.

Marathon Oil Price Performance

Marathon Oil stock opened at $28.55 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $15.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.25 and a beta of 2.16. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $27.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $27.65. Marathon Oil has a fifty-two week low of $21.81 and a fifty-two week high of $30.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.61.

Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.01. Marathon Oil had a return on equity of 12.80% and a net margin of 19.73%. The firm had revenue of $1.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.77 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Marathon Oil will post 2.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Marathon Oil Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. Marathon Oil’s payout ratio is presently 18.88%.

Insider Activity at Marathon Oil

In related news, insider Patrick Wagner sold 36,094 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.84, for a total transaction of $1,040,950.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 104,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,020,557.40. The trade was a 25.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Michael A. Henderson sold 38,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.21, for a total transaction of $1,033,980.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 76,828 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,090,489.88. The trade was a 33.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 382,693 shares of company stock valued at $10,964,251 over the last ninety days. 0.35% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Marathon Oil

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Marathon Oil by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 14,727,190 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $392,185,000 after purchasing an additional 1,357,369 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Marathon Oil by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,461,323 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $242,582,000 after buying an additional 328,184 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management grew its position in shares of Marathon Oil by 10.1% in the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 6,443,713 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $184,741,000 after acquiring an additional 593,100 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Marathon Oil by 0.4% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,267,506 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $140,274,000 after purchasing an additional 19,566 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Marathon Oil by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,884,151 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $76,805,000 after acquiring an additional 171,450 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.