Marathon Oil Co. (NYSE:MRO) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.11

Marathon Oil Co. (NYSE:MRO) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 24th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.11 per share by the oil and gas producer on Monday, June 10th. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.60%.

Marathon Oil has raised its dividend payment by an average of 72.4% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 3 years. Marathon Oil has a dividend payout ratio of 13.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Marathon Oil to earn $3.12 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.44 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 14.1%.

Marathon Oil Price Performance

NYSE MRO traded down $0.29 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $27.53. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,976,387 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,809,234. Marathon Oil has a fifty-two week low of $21.63 and a fifty-two week high of $30.06. The stock has a market cap of $15.73 billion, a PE ratio of 10.73 and a beta of 2.22. The company’s 50-day moving average is $26.44 and its two-hundred day moving average is $25.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a current ratio of 0.40.

Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.07. Marathon Oil had a net margin of 23.20% and a return on equity of 14.09%. The business had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.66 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.88 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Marathon Oil will post 2.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Marathon Oil news, insider Patrick Wagner sold 39,969 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.89, for a total transaction of $1,074,766.41. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 176,923 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,757,459.47. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, insider Patrick Wagner sold 39,969 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.89, for a total transaction of $1,074,766.41. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 176,923 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,757,459.47. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Lee M. Tillman sold 80,647 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.94, for a total transaction of $2,172,630.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 596,330 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,065,130.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 281,332 shares of company stock valued at $7,644,903. Company insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James lowered their price objective on Marathon Oil from $35.00 to $32.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Marathon Oil from $28.00 to $27.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Scotiabank upped their target price on Marathon Oil from $35.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Marathon Oil from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price target on Marathon Oil from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $32.66.

Marathon Oil Company Profile

Marathon Oil Corporation, an independent exploration and production company, engages in exploration, production, and marketing of crude oil and condensate, natural gas liquids, and natural gas in the United States and internationally. The company also produces and markets products manufactured from natural gas, such as liquefied natural gas and methanol.