Salomon & Ludwin LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Marathon Petroleum Corporation $MPC

Salomon & Ludwin LLC lifted its stake in shares of Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:MPC) by 35.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 967 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after buying an additional 253 shares during the period. Salomon & Ludwin LLC’s holdings in Marathon Petroleum were worth $169,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MPC. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 12.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,941,391 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $5,090,611,000 after buying an additional 3,834,501 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in Marathon Petroleum by 58.5% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,448,514 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $791,274,000 after acquiring an additional 2,011,810 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Marathon Petroleum by 18.7% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,824,177 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,722,664,000 after acquiring an additional 1,862,674 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Marathon Petroleum during the first quarter worth $147,122,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Marathon Petroleum by 26.5% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,675,362 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $535,465,000 after acquiring an additional 769,015 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.77% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Marathon Petroleum

In other news, insider Molly R. Benson sold 10,879 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.00, for a total transaction of $1,773,277.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 28,700 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,678,100. This represents a 27.49% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.21% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on MPC shares. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Marathon Petroleum from $170.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, September 19th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Marathon Petroleum in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on Marathon Petroleum in a research note on Friday. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $214.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America boosted their target price on Marathon Petroleum from $184.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $203.00 price target (up from $199.00) on shares of Marathon Petroleum in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Marathon Petroleum presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.31.

Marathon Petroleum Trading Up 1.7%

NYSE MPC opened at $184.14 on Friday. Marathon Petroleum Corporation has a 1-year low of $115.10 and a 1-year high of $201.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $180.61 and a 200-day moving average of $164.88. The firm has a market cap of $55.98 billion, a PE ratio of 27.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.90.

Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The oil and gas company reported $3.96 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.74. Marathon Petroleum had a return on equity of 8.38% and a net margin of 1.58%.The business had revenue of $34.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $31.70 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $4.12 EPS. Marathon Petroleum’s quarterly revenue was down 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Marathon Petroleum Corporation will post 8.47 EPS for the current year.

Marathon Petroleum Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th were paid a dividend of $0.91 per share. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 20th. Marathon Petroleum’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.01%.

Marathon Petroleum Profile

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.