Lake Street Advisors Group LLC Purchases 69 Shares of Marathon Petroleum Co. (NYSE:MPC)

Lake Street Advisors Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Marathon Petroleum Co. (NYSE:MPC) by 1.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,271 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after acquiring an additional 69 shares during the quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in Marathon Petroleum were worth $596,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FourThought Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Marathon Petroleum in the fourth quarter valued at about $4,600,000. Horizon Advisory Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. Horizon Advisory Services Inc. now owns 1,842 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $257,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,803,951 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $670,151,000 after purchasing an additional 315,786 shares during the period. BankPlus Trust Department bought a new position in shares of Marathon Petroleum in the fourth quarter valued at about $395,000. Finally, GHE LLC raised its position in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. GHE LLC now owns 38,572 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $5,381,000 after purchasing an additional 665 shares during the period. 76.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MPC has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Marathon Petroleum from $168.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 11th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and issued a $170.00 price target on shares of Marathon Petroleum in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Tudor Pickering upgraded shares of Marathon Petroleum from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Marathon Petroleum from $190.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Marathon Petroleum from $182.00 to $183.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $181.27.

Insider Activity

In other Marathon Petroleum news, Director Jeffrey C. Campbell acquired 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $149.61 per share, for a total transaction of $897,660.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 6,090 shares in the company, valued at $911,124.90. This represents a 6,666.67 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.21% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Marathon Petroleum Trading Up 1.2 %

MPC opened at $148.06 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $147.82 and its 200-day moving average is $155.94. Marathon Petroleum Co. has a 1-year low of $130.54 and a 1-year high of $221.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The company has a market cap of $47.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.91, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.41.

Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The oil and gas company reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.06 by $0.71. Marathon Petroleum had a net margin of 2.45% and a return on equity of 12.07%. The company had revenue of $33.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $31.94 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.98 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Marathon Petroleum Co. will post 8.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Marathon Petroleum Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 10th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be paid a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.46%. Marathon Petroleum’s payout ratio is currently 36.66%.

Marathon Petroleum declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, November 5th that allows the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the oil and gas company to buy up to 10% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors 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.