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Marathon Petroleum (MPC) Stock Moves -1.34%: What You Should Know

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Marathon Petroleum (MPC - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $111.36, moving -1.34% from the previous trading session. This move was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 2.38%. At the same time, the Dow lost 1.94%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.6%.

Heading into today, shares of the refiner had gained 22.74% over the past month, outpacing the Oils-Energy sector's gain of 10.37% and the S&P 500's loss of 0.07% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Marathon Petroleum as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, Marathon Petroleum is projected to report earnings of $4.70 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 601.49%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $31.41 billion, up 5.31% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $13.72 per share and revenue of $131.8 billion, which would represent changes of +460% and +8.99%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Marathon Petroleum. 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. 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.

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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 40.28% higher. Marathon Petroleum is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Looking at its valuation, Marathon Petroleum is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 8.23. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 10.3, so we one might conclude that Marathon Petroleum is trading at a discount comparatively.

Investors should also note that MPC has a PEG ratio of 0.41 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 industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 0.78 as of yesterday's close.

The Oil and Gas - Refining and Marketing industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 5, putting it in the top 2% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our 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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