Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. Sells 11,916 Shares of Marathon Petroleum Corporation $MPC

Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. reduced its position in shares of Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:MPC) by 91.7% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,082 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 11,916 shares during the period. Symphony Financial Ltd. Co.’s holdings in Marathon Petroleum were worth $209,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Marathon Petroleum by 11.2% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 38,866,104 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $6,456,049,000 after buying an additional 3,924,713 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 14.8% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,013,213 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,325,598,000 after buying an additional 1,033,645 shares during the period. Boston Partners raised its holdings in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 13.1% during the second quarter. Boston Partners now owns 6,163,737 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,024,395,000 after acquiring an additional 715,223 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Marathon Petroleum by 12.8% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,619,398 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $933,438,000 after acquiring an additional 637,050 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Marathon Petroleum during the 2nd quarter valued at $527,197,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MPC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Zacks Research cut shares of Marathon Petroleum from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Marathon Petroleum from $211.00 to $179.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Marathon Petroleum from $182.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Marathon Petroleum from $206.00 to $204.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Scotiabank restated an “outperform” rating and set a $174.00 price target on shares of Marathon Petroleum in a research report on Friday, January 16th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $196.67.

Marathon Petroleum Stock Performance

Shares of MPC opened at $175.39 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.31. The stock has a market cap of $52.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.70, a P/E/G ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 0.74. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $179.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $180.71. Marathon Petroleum Corporation has a 52 week low of $115.10 and a 52 week high of $202.29.

Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The oil and gas company reported $3.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.00 by $0.01. Marathon Petroleum had a return on equity of 9.76% and a net margin of 2.13%.The business had revenue of $34.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $31.06 billion. Equities research analysts anticipate that Marathon Petroleum Corporation will post 8.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Marathon Petroleum Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 10th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 19th were given a dividend of $1.00 per share. This is a positive change from Marathon Petroleum’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 19th. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. Marathon Petroleum’s payout ratio is currently 42.64%.

Marathon Petroleum Company Profile

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.