Xponance Inc. Grows Position in Marathon Oil Co. (NYSE:MRO)

Xponance Inc. raised its holdings in Marathon Oil Co. (NYSE:MRO) by 59.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 228,892 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 85,725 shares during the period. Xponance Inc.’s holdings in Marathon Oil were worth $5,530,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Smithfield Trust Co raised its holdings in shares of Marathon Oil by 367.9% in the 3rd quarter. Smithfield Trust Co now owns 1,020 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 802 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of Marathon Oil during the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. ICA Group Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Marathon Oil by 92.6% during the 1st quarter. ICA Group Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,086 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 522 shares during the last quarter. KB Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Marathon Oil during the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, First Capital Advisors Group LLC. bought a new position in shares of Marathon Oil during the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.24% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on MRO. Raymond James reduced their price objective on Marathon Oil from $35.00 to $32.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $33.00 price target on shares of Marathon Oil in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Marathon Oil from $39.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Truist Financial raised their price target on Marathon Oil from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price target on Marathon Oil from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $32.76.

Marathon Oil Stock Up 0.4 %

Marathon Oil stock opened at $27.50 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $15.72 billion, a PE ratio of 10.74 and a beta of 2.22. 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 Co. has a one year low of $21.63 and a one year high of $30.06. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $26.23 and a 200 day moving average of $25.35.

Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $1.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.66 billion. Marathon Oil had a return on equity of 14.09% and a net margin of 23.20%. Marathon Oil’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.88 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Marathon Oil Co. will post 2.74 EPS for the current year.

Marathon Oil Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 21st were given a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 20th. Marathon Oil’s payout ratio is 17.19%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Marathon Oil news, CFO Dane E. Whitehead sold 73,233 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.06, for a total value of $1,981,684.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 152,008 shares in the company, valued at $4,113,336.48. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CFO Dane E. Whitehead sold 73,233 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.06, for a total value of $1,981,684.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 152,008 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,113,336.48. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Patrick Wagner sold 36,094 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.65, for a total value of $997,999.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 140,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,893,921.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 281,332 shares of company stock worth $7,644,903 over the last quarter. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Marathon Oil

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.