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Marathon Petroleum (MPC) Stock Moves 0.72%: What You Should Know

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Marathon Petroleum (MPC - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $132.19, moving +0.72% from the previous trading session. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.29%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 1.92%.

Heading into today, shares of the refiner had gained 6.03% over the past month, outpacing the Oils-Energy sector's gain of 2.17% and lagging the S&P 500's gain of 6.51% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Marathon Petroleum as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be May 2, 2023. The company is expected to report EPS of $5.17, up 246.98% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $31.03 billion, down 19.15% from the prior-year quarter.

MPC's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $20.28 per share and revenue of $130.11 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -22.48% and -27.7%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Marathon Petroleum should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 3.34% higher. Marathon Petroleum currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Marathon Petroleum has a Forward P/E ratio of 6.47 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 6.5, so we one might conclude that Marathon Petroleum is trading at a discount comparatively.

We can also see that MPC currently has a PEG ratio of 0.22. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Oil and Gas - Refining and Marketing was holding an average PEG ratio of 0.76 at yesterday's closing price.

The Oil and Gas - Refining and Marketing industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 37, putting it in the top 15% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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