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Marathon Oil (MRO) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Marathon Oil (MRO - Free Report) closed at $24.74, marking a -0.24% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.09%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.03%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 2.51%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the energy company had gained 14.07% over the past month. This has outpaced the Oils-Energy sector's gain of 12.14% and the S&P 500's gain of 6.17% in that time.

Marathon Oil will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be May 3, 2023. In that report, analysts expect Marathon Oil to post earnings of $0.66 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 35.29%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $1.66 billion, down 5.26% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $3.13 per share and revenue of $6.95 billion. These totals would mark changes of -30.13% and -13.52%, respectively, from last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Marathon Oil. 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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 10.51% lower. Marathon Oil currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, Marathon Oil currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 7.94. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 10.55, so we one might conclude that Marathon Oil is trading at a discount comparatively.

We can also see that MRO currently has a PEG ratio of 0.35. 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. MRO's industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.53 as of yesterday's close.

The Oil and Gas - Integrated - United States industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 70, which puts it in the top 28% 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.

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


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