Marathon Petroleum Co. (NYSE:MPC) Shares Acquired by Empirical Finance LLC

Empirical Finance LLC grew its position in Marathon Petroleum Co. (NYSE:MPC) by 1.9% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 24,437 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after buying an additional 457 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Marathon Petroleum were worth $4,924,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,153,636 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $764,526,000 after buying an additional 137,341 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates lifted its holdings in Marathon Petroleum by 1.9% in the first quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 4,178,977 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $842,064,000 after acquiring an additional 76,920 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Marathon Petroleum in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $500,685,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,341,364 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $347,365,000 after purchasing an additional 178,502 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service grew its stake in Marathon Petroleum by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. National Pension Service now owns 969,120 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $143,779,000 after buying an additional 26,941 shares during the last quarter. 76.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on MPC shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Marathon Petroleum from $191.00 to $186.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Raymond James cut their target price on Marathon Petroleum from $235.00 to $230.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Bank of America increased their price target on Marathon Petroleum from $185.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Marathon Petroleum from $175.00 to $207.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Marathon Petroleum from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 14th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Marathon Petroleum has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $189.23.

Marathon Petroleum Trading Up 0.7 %

Marathon Petroleum stock traded up $1.17 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $165.46. The stock had a trading volume of 2,248,081 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,692,776. The firm has a market cap of $58.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.19, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.40. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $174.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $176.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 0.99. Marathon Petroleum Co. has a twelve month low of $117.28 and a twelve month high of $221.11.

Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The oil and gas company reported $2.78 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.53 by $0.25. Marathon Petroleum had a net margin of 5.32% and a return on equity of 25.87%. The business had revenue of $32.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $32.07 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $6.09 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Marathon Petroleum Co. will post 16.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Marathon Petroleum Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th were paid a dividend of $0.825 per share. This represents a $3.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 15th. Marathon Petroleum’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.48%.

Marathon Petroleum declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, April 30th that permits the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the oil and gas company to buy up to 7.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase 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.