Marathon (MRO) Q3 Earnings Top as U.S. Output Grows, Cost Falls

MRO IMO CVI MPC

Marathon Oil Corporation (MRO - Free Report) reported third-quarter 2023 adjusted net income per share of 77 cents, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 69 cents. The outperformance reflects strong domestic oil and gas production, to go with lower unit costs.

However, the company’s bottom line fell from the year-ago adjusted profit of $1.24 due to weaker oil realizations.

The company reported revenues of $1.8 billion, which came 3.4% above the consensus mark but fell 19.3% from the year-ago sales of $2.2 billion.

In important news for investors, MRO’s board of directors recently declared a quarterly cash dividend of 11 cents per share to its common shareholders of record on Nov 15. The payout, which represents a 10% sequential increase, will be made on Dec 11.

 

Financial Position

Total costs in the quarter were $1.1 billion, essentially unchanged from the prior-year period and marginally below our expectations. Marathon Oil reported an adjusted operating cash flow of $1.1 billion for the third quarter, down 20.6% from a year ago.

As of Sep 30, 2023, it had cash and cash equivalents worth $174 million and long-term debt of $4.9 billion. The debt-to-capitalization ratio of the company was 33.8.

Marathon Oil spent $449 million in capital and exploratory expenditures during the quarter and raked in $718 million in adjusted free cash flow. The company also executed $415 million in share repurchases during the period.

2023 Guidance

Marathon has maintained its budgeted capital spending between $1.9 billion and $2 billion this year. Meanwhile, MRO continues to prioritize shareholder returns over production growth. The company is targeting production toward the high end of its range of 385,000 BOE/d to 405,000 BOE/d. Further, Marathon expects oil volumes in the band of 185,000-195,000 barrels per day.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Marathon — a leading upstream oil and gas company — carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present.       

Apart from MRO, investors interested in the energy sector might also look at operators like Marathon Petroleum (MPC - Free Report) , Imperial Oil Limited (IMO - Free Report) and CVR Energy (CVI - Free Report) . Each of these companies has a Zacks Rank of 2.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Metroleum Petroleum: MPC beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in each of the trailing four quarters at an average of 11.9%.

Marathon Petroleum is valued at around $54.5 billion. MPC has seen its shares move up 17% in a year.

Imperial Oil: Imperial Oil beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in three of the last four quarters and met in the other. IMO has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 9.4%, on average.

Imperial Oil is valued at around $30.4 billion. IMO has seen its shares drop 5.4% in a year.

CVR Energy: CVI beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in each of the trailing four quarters. Over the past 60 days, CVR Energy saw the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2023 move up 3.8%.

CVR Energy is valued at around $3.2 billion. CVI has seen its shares lose 19.8% in a year.

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