Kavar Capital Partners Group LLC Sells 90 Shares of Marathon Petroleum Co. (NYSE:MPC)

Kavar Capital Partners Group LLC decreased its stake in Marathon Petroleum Co. (NYSE:MPC) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,613 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 90 shares during the quarter. Kavar Capital Partners Group LLC’s holdings in Marathon Petroleum were worth $644,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Marathon Petroleum by 22.3% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,552,655 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $495,595,000 after acquiring an additional 647,045 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 151.7% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 356,986 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $49,800,000 after purchasing an additional 215,138 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Marathon Petroleum by 24.2% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 7,667 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,070,000 after buying an additional 1,492 shares in the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC boosted its stake in Marathon Petroleum by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 5,048 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $704,000 after buying an additional 486 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management grew its position in Marathon Petroleum by 10.6% during the fourth quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 3,317 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $463,000 after acquiring an additional 317 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $170.00 price objective on shares of Marathon Petroleum in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Marathon Petroleum from $186.00 to $182.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on Marathon Petroleum from $191.00 to $170.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Marathon Petroleum from $172.00 to $171.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on Marathon Petroleum in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $174.00 price target on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $181.20.

Marathon Petroleum Stock Performance

Shares of MPC opened at $151.43 on Monday. Marathon Petroleum Co. has a one year low of $130.54 and a one year high of $221.11. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $147.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $158.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.67 billion, a PE ratio of 12.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.42.

Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The oil and gas company reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.97 by $0.90. The company had revenue of $35.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.34 billion. Marathon Petroleum had a return on equity of 16.19% and a net margin of 3.15%. The firm’s revenue was down 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $8.14 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Marathon Petroleum Co. will post 8.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Marathon Petroleum Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th were issued a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 20th. This is a boost from Marathon Petroleum’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. Marathon Petroleum’s dividend payout ratio is 28.84%.

Marathon Petroleum announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, November 5th that permits the company to buyback $5.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the oil and gas company to reacquire up to 10% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Jeffrey C. Campbell purchased 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were bought at an average price of $149.61 per share, for a total transaction of $897,660.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 6,090 shares in the company, valued at approximately $911,124.90. This trade represents a 6,666.67 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

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.