Alaska Permanent Fund Corp Grows Position in Marathon Petroleum Co. (NYSE:MPC)

Alaska Permanent Fund Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Marathon Petroleum Co. (NYSE:MPC) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 41,724 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after purchasing an additional 726 shares during the quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp’s holdings in Marathon Petroleum were worth $6,190,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MPC. Aspire Private Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Marathon Petroleum by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. Aspire Private Capital LLC now owns 3,456 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $523,000 after acquiring an additional 145 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP boosted its stake in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 10,899 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,617,000 after buying an additional 340 shares during the period. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC now owns 579,841 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $87,753,000 after buying an additional 48,540 shares during the period. Trust Point Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Marathon Petroleum in the 4th quarter valued at about $738,000. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. boosted its stake in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 8,925 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,324,000 after buying an additional 537 shares during the period. 76.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MPC. Barclays raised their target price on Marathon Petroleum from $168.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Marathon Petroleum from $159.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on Marathon Petroleum from $168.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Scotiabank lifted their price target on Marathon Petroleum from $175.00 to $207.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Marathon Petroleum from $175.00 to $211.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $193.77.

Marathon Petroleum Price Performance

MPC traded down $1.00 during trading on Thursday, reaching $198.14. 175,083 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,752,436. Marathon Petroleum Co. has a 1 year low of $104.32 and a 1 year high of $221.11. The company has a market capitalization of $71.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.52. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $191.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $166.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.59 and a quick ratio of 1.13.

Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The oil and gas company reported $3.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.21 by $1.77. The company had revenue of $36.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $34.90 billion. Marathon Petroleum had a return on equity of 30.58% and a net margin of 6.44%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $6.65 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Marathon Petroleum Co. will post 20.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Marathon Petroleum Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a $0.825 dividend. This represents a $3.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. Marathon Petroleum’s payout ratio is currently 14.02%.

Insider Activity at Marathon Petroleum

In other Marathon Petroleum news, Director Kim K.W. Rucker sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.35, for a total transaction of $170,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 23,446 shares in the company, valued at $3,994,026.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

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.