New Covenant Trust Company N.A. Buys New Shares in Marathon Petroleum Co. (NYSE:MPC)

New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new stake in Marathon Petroleum Co. (NYSE:MPC) during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 981 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock, valued at approximately $198,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in MPC. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 2.7% during 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 last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 4,178,977 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $842,064,000 after buying an additional 76,920 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Marathon Petroleum during the 4th quarter valued at about $500,685,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,080,958 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $620,815,000 after buying an additional 31,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 7.6% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,663,835 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $335,241,000 after buying an additional 117,790 shares during the last quarter. 76.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on MPC shares. Tudor Pickering upgraded Marathon Petroleum to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Raymond James cut their price target on Marathon Petroleum from $235.00 to $230.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Wolfe Research started coverage on Marathon Petroleum in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $200.00 price target for the company. Scotiabank cut their price target on Marathon Petroleum from $207.00 to $191.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price objective on Marathon Petroleum from $203.00 to $201.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 20th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $193.64.

Marathon Petroleum Price Performance

Shares of Marathon Petroleum stock traded down $3.84 on Thursday, hitting $173.18. 1,339,658 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,656,703. The stock has a market capitalization of $61.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $171.71 and a 200 day moving average price of $178.47. Marathon Petroleum Co. has a 1-year low of $133.65 and a 1-year high of $221.11.

Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The oil and gas company reported $2.78 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.53 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $32.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $32.07 billion. Marathon Petroleum had a net margin of 5.32% and a return on equity of 25.87%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $6.09 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Marathon Petroleum Co. will post 13.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Marathon Petroleum Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st will be given a dividend of $0.825 per share. This represents a $3.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 21st. Marathon Petroleum’s payout ratio is presently 16.48%.

Marathon Petroleum announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are 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.