Marathon Petroleum Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:MPC)

Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:MPC) saw unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Investors bought 6,146 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 100% compared to the average daily volume of 3,076 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Scotiabank upped their target price on Marathon Petroleum from $174.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group set a $335.00 price objective on shares of Marathon Petroleum and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, July 12th. Evercore set a $330.00 price target on Marathon Petroleum in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Zacks Research lowered Marathon Petroleum from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 17th. Finally, Raymond James Financial increased their target price on shares of Marathon Petroleum from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Marathon Petroleum has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $312.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Marathon Petroleum news, VP Michael A. Henschen II sold 6,336 shares of Marathon Petroleum stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.82, for a total transaction of $1,703,243.52. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 16,900 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,543,058. The trade was a 27.27% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Marathon Petroleum

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Marathon Petroleum in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $6,648,958,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of Marathon Petroleum during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,029,611,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Marathon Petroleum in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $472,312,000. Capital Wealth Planning LLC raised its holdings in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 49,392.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 1,498,124 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $245,157,000 after purchasing an additional 1,495,097 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 3,816.8% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,306,749 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $212,517,000 after purchasing an additional 1,273,386 shares in the last quarter. 76.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Marathon Petroleum Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of NYSE:MPC traded up $1.40 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $357.77. The stock had a trading volume of 537,522 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,435,503. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $285.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $246.90. The firm has a market cap of $104.45 billion, a PE ratio of 12.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.23 and a beta of 0.52. Marathon Petroleum has a twelve month low of $160.87 and a twelve month high of $360.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19.

Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The oil and gas company reported $17.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $14.27 by $3.46. Marathon Petroleum had a net margin of 5.48% and a return on equity of 31.96%. The business had revenue of $51.99 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.87 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.96 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 53.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Marathon Petroleum will post 46.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Marathon Petroleum Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be paid a $1.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. Marathon Petroleum’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.75%.

About Marathon Petroleum

Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: MPC) is a U.S.-based downstream energy company engaged principally in the refining, marketing, supply and transportation of petroleum products. The company was formed through a spin-off from Marathon Oil in 2011 and operates an integrated system of refining and logistics assets that support the production and distribution of transportation fuels and other refined petroleum products.

Marathon Petroleum’s operations include refining crude oil into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, asphalt and other specialty products, as well as managing the distribution and storage infrastructure needed to move those products to market.