Marathon Oil Co. (NYSE:MRO) Receives $32.14 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Marathon Oil Co. (NYSE:MRO) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eighteen analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nine have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $32.14.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MRO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $33.00 target price on shares of Marathon Oil in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and issued a $32.00 price target on shares of Marathon Oil in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Scotiabank cut Marathon Oil from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $45.00 to $29.00 in a report on Friday, July 12th. Barclays started coverage on Marathon Oil in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $35.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Mizuho upped their price target on Marathon Oil from $33.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 5th.

Marathon Oil Stock Down 1.5 %

MRO opened at $27.45 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $27.97 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $26.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The company has a market cap of $15.48 billion, a PE ratio of 11.34 and a beta of 2.19. Marathon Oil has a 52 week low of $21.81 and a 52 week high of $30.06.

Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The oil and gas producer reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.55 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.56 billion. Marathon Oil had a return on equity of 13.24% and a net margin of 21.83%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.67 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Marathon Oil will post 2.79 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Marathon Oil

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in shares of Marathon Oil by 47.3% during the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 2,210 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $63,000 after purchasing an additional 710 shares during the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Marathon Oil by 123.2% in the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,186,171 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $34,008,000 after buying an additional 654,643 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its position in shares of Marathon Oil by 11.3% in the 2nd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 688,444 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $19,738,000 after buying an additional 69,696 shares during the period. Arkadios Wealth Advisors raised its position in shares of Marathon Oil by 255.6% in the 2nd quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 37,317 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,070,000 after buying an additional 26,822 shares during the period. Finally, HB Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Marathon Oil by 17.0% in the 2nd quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 14,622 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $419,000 after buying an additional 2,126 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.24% of the company’s stock.

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.