What's Going On With Marathon Petroleum Shares Today?

Marathon Petroleum Corporation MPC shares are trading lower after it reported first-quarter FY24 results.

Revenue and other income of $33.211 billion, beating the consensus of $32.011 billion. Adjusted EBITDA was $3.26 billion for the quarter, compared with $5.22 billion in prior year quarter.

Refining operating costs per barrel were $6.14 versus $5.68 a year ago. Refining & Marketing refined product sales volume for the quarter was 3,277 mbpd (vs. 3,352 a year ago); Crude oil capacity utilization was 82% vs. 89% in the prior-year quarter.  

Refining & Marketing segment adjusted EBITDA declined sharply to $1.874 billion from $3.853 billion a year ago due to lower market crack spreads and throughputs.

Adjusted EPS for the quarter was $2.78, above the consensus of $2.42.

As of March-end, Marathon Petroleum had $7.6 billion of cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments and $5 billion available on its bank revolving credit facility.

“In the first quarter, our team safely and successfully completed the largest planned maintenance quarter in MPC history, including at four of our largest refineries,” said Chief Executive Officer Michael J. Hennigan. “This positions us to meet the high demand of summer travel season.”

Dividend & Repurchases: In the first quarter, the company returned approximately $2.2 billion through share repurchases and $299 million via dividends. 

Through April 26, the company repurchased an additional $0.8 billion of company shares. 

The Board of Directors also approved an incremental $5 billion share repurchase authorization. With this, it had around $8.8 billion available under its share repurchase authorizations.

Marathon Petroleum owns the general partner and majority limited partner interest in MPLX LP MPLX, which reported first-quarter earnings per limited partner unit of $0.98 and sales of $2.85 billion, missing the consensus of $2.90 billion. 

MPLX returned $951 million of capital to unitholders in the quarter.

Outlook: Marathon Petroleum expects second-quarter Refining operating costs per barrel of $4.95 and Refinery throughputs of 2,965 mbpd. 

Investors can gain exposure to the stock via IShares U.S. Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF IEO and First Trust Nasdaq Oil & Gas ETF FTXN.

Also Read: US Energy Stocks Fall Following Oil Giants’ Subdued Earnings Reports

Price Action: MPC shares are down 6.6% at $187.25 at the last check Tuesday.

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