Marathon Petroleum Co. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.83 (NYSE:MPC)

Marathon Petroleum Co. (NYSE:MPC) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 24th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a dividend of 0.825 per share by the oil and gas company on Monday, June 10th. This represents a $3.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.67%.

Marathon Petroleum has raised its dividend by an average of 9.9% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 2 years. Marathon Petroleum has a payout ratio of 19.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Marathon Petroleum to earn $16.52 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.30 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 20.0%.

Marathon Petroleum Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of MPC stock traded down $1.57 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $198.08. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 620,476 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,774,544. Marathon Petroleum has a 12-month low of $104.32 and a 12-month high of $221.11. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $190.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $165.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $71.38 billion, a PE ratio of 8.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.52.

Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The oil and gas company reported $3.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $1.77. Marathon Petroleum had a return on equity of 30.58% and a net margin of 6.44%. The firm had revenue of $36.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.90 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $6.65 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Marathon Petroleum will post 19.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kim K.W. Rucker sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.35, for a total transaction of $170,350.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 23,446 shares in the company, valued at $3,994,026.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.21% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Marathon Petroleum from $214.00 to $227.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Marathon Petroleum from $175.00 to $207.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Mizuho lifted their price target on Marathon Petroleum from $201.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Barclays lifted their target price on Marathon Petroleum from $168.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Marathon Petroleum from $175.00 to $211.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Five 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $193.77.

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.