Analyzing Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) and Martin Midstream Partners (NASDAQ:MMLP)

Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) and Martin Midstream Partners (NASDAQ:MMLP) are both energy companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, risk and earnings.

Risk & Volatility

Marathon Petroleum has a beta of 0.54, meaning that its share price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Martin Midstream Partners has a beta of 0.51, meaning that its share price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Marathon Petroleum and Martin Midstream Partners, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Marathon Petroleum	0	5	11	1	2.76
Martin Midstream Partners	1	1	0	0	1.50

Marathon Petroleum presently has a consensus target price of $424.31, suggesting a potential downside of 4.63%. Martin Midstream Partners has a consensus target price of $3.00, suggesting a potential upside of 51.52%. Given Martin Midstream Partners’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Martin Midstream Partners is more favorable than Marathon Petroleum.

Dividends

Marathon Petroleum pays an annual dividend of $4.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Martin Midstream Partners pays an annual dividend of $0.02 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Marathon Petroleum pays out 13.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Martin Midstream Partners pays out -7.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Marathon Petroleum has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Martin Midstream Partners is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Marathon Petroleum and Martin Midstream Partners”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Marathon Petroleum	$135.22 billion	0.96	$4.05 billion	$29.09	15.29
Martin Midstream Partners	$716.11 million	0.11	-$14.74 million	($0.27)	-7.33

Marathon Petroleum has higher revenue and earnings than Martin Midstream Partners. Martin Midstream Partners is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Marathon Petroleum, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

76.8% of Marathon Petroleum shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 34.9% of Martin Midstream Partners shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Marathon Petroleum shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 17.0% of Martin Midstream Partners shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Marathon Petroleum and Martin Midstream Partners’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Marathon Petroleum	5.48%	31.96%	8.88%
Martin Midstream Partners	-1.38%	N/A	-2.06%

Summary

Marathon Petroleum beats Martin Midstream Partners on 14 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. Its refined products include transportation fuels, such as reformulated gasolines and blend-grade gasolines; heavy fuel oil; and asphalt. This segment also manufactures propane and petrochemicals. It sells refined products to wholesale marketing customers in the United States and internationally, buyers on the spot market, and independent entrepreneurs who operate primarily Marathon branded outlets, as well as through long-term fuel supply contracts to direct dealer locations primarily under the ARCO brand. The Midstream segment transports, stores, distributes, and markets crude oil and refined products through refining logistics assets, pipelines, terminals, towboats, and barges; gathers, processes, and transports natural gas; and gathers, transports, fractionates, stores, and markets natural gas liquids. Marathon Petroleum Corporation was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in Findlay, Ohio.

About Martin Midstream Partners

Martin Midstream Partners L.P., together with its subsidiaries, provides terminalling, processing, storage, and packaging services for petroleum products and by-products primarily in the United States. The company operates in four segments: Terminalling and Storage, Transportation, Sulfur Services, and Specialty Products. The company's Terminalling and Storage segment owns or operates various marine shore-based terminal facilities and specialty terminal facilities that provide storage, refining, blending, packaging, and handling services for producers and suppliers of petroleum products and by-products. This segment also offers land rental services to oil and gas companies, as well as storage and handling services for lubricants and fuels. Its Transportation segment operates various trucks and tank trailers; and inland marine tank barges, inland push boats, and articulated offshore tug and barge unit to transport petroleum products and by-products, petrochemicals, and chemicals. The company's Sulfur Services segment processes molten sulfur into prilled or pelletized sulfur, which is used in the production of fertilizers and industrial chemicals. Its Specialty Products segment stores, distributes, and transports natural gas liquids for wholesale deliveries to refineries, industrial natural gas liquid users, and propane retailers. Martin Midstream GP LLC serves as a general partner of the company. Martin Midstream Partners L.P. was incorporated in 2002 and is based in Kilgore, Texas.