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Marathon Petroleum (MPC) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Marathon Petroleum (MPC - Free Report) closed at $58.89, marking a -0.52% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.3% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.38%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.44%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the refiner had lost 4.08% over the past month. This has lagged the Oils-Energy sector's gain of 2.34% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.91% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from MPC as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect MPC to post earnings of $0.58 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 625%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $35.86 billion, up 88.9% from the year-ago period.

MPC's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $6.28 per share and revenue of $121.33 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -7.37% and +24.95%, respectively.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for MPC. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 2.47% lower. MPC is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, MPC currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 9.42. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 11.45, so we one might conclude that MPC is trading at a discount comparatively.

Investors should also note that MPC has a PEG ratio of 0.62 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Oil and Gas - Refining and Marketing was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.18 at yesterday's closing price.

The Oil and Gas - Refining and Marketing industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 155, which puts it in the bottom 40% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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