What's Going On With Marathon Oil Stock Today?

Marathon Oil Corp MRO shares are trading higher Thursday after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter EPS results.

What Happened: On Wednesday after market closure, Marathon announced its fourth quarter and full-year 2022 results for the year and quarter ending Dec. 31, 2022. Additionally, the company provided guidance for its capital expenditures throughout 2023.

The Details: The company reported a fourth-quarter EPS figure of $0.88 per share, beating analyst estimates of $0.84 per share, representing a positive earnings surprise of 4.76%. Additionally, Marathon reported fourth-quarter revenues of $1.73 billion, slightly topping analyst estimates of $1.72 billion.

Marathon reported a full-year 2022 EPS figure of $4.48 per share, compared to $1.57 per share for 2021. The company also reported revenues of $7.54 billion, compared to $5.6 billion in the prior year.

The oil and gas exploration and production company issued guidance for its capital budget for full-year 2023, noting that it expects capital budget expenditures to be in the range of $1.9 billion-$2 billion and expects to deliver $2.6 billion in free cash flow.

Marathon CEO Lee Tillman noted, “We generated approximately $4 billion of free cash flow and returned $3 billion of capital back to our shareholders … We achieved these results while holding true to our core values, keeping our workforce safe, and delivering comprehensive ESG excellence.”

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Following the company's quarterly results, Benchmark analyst Subash Chandra upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy and announced a price target of $32.

According to data from Benzinga Pro, Marathon Oil was up 4.93%, trading at $27.36 at the time of publication. The stock has a 52-week high of $33.42 and a 52-week low of $19.42.

Photo: John R Perry from Pixabay.