Marathon Petroleum Q3 Earnings: Outpaces Expectations, Powers Up Shareholder Rewards & More

Marathon Petroleum Corporation MPC shares are trading higher after its third-quarter results.

Total revenues and other income of $35.4 billion topped the consensus of $32.8 billion.

Adjusted EBITDA was $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared with $5.71 billion in prior year quarter. Refining operating costs per barrel were $5.30 versus $5.14 a year ago. 

Read: Marathon Petroleum Q3 Earnings Preview: Can Strong Sales Volume Offset Rising Costs?

Refining & Marketing refined product sales volume for the quarter was 3,685 mbpd (vs. 3,596 mbpd a year ago); Crude oil capacity utilization was 94% (flat year over year).  

Refining & Marketing segment adjusted EBITDA declined to $1.053 billion from $4.373 billion a year ago due to lower market crack spreads.

Adjusted EPS for the quarter was $1.87, above the consensus of $0.98.

As of September-end, Marathon Petroleum had $5.1 billion of cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments and $5 billion available on its bank revolving credit facility.

In the third quarter, the company returned around $3.0 billion to shareholders, including $2.7 billion in share repurchases and $273 million in dividends. Through October 31, the company bought back an additional $0.5 billion of shares.

Additionally, the company’s board approved an incremental $5 billion share repurchase authorization. With the addition of this new authorization, Marathon Petroleum has $8.5 billion available under its share repurchase authorizations. 

On October 30, the company increased its quarterly dividend to $0.91 per share. The dividend is payable on December 10 to shareholders of record on November 20.   

Outlook: Marathon Petroleum expects fourth-quarter Refining operating costs per barrel of $5.50 and Refinery throughputs of 2,880 mbpd. 

Marathon Petroleum owns the general partner and majority limited partner interest in MPLX LP MPLX, which reported third-quarter earnings per limited partner unit of $1.01, missing the consensus of $1.07, and revenues of $2.97 billion, missing the consensus of $3.09 billion. MPLX returned $949 million of capital to unitholders in the quarter.

Investors can gain exposure to the stock via iShares U.S. Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF IEO and VanEck Oil Refiners ETF CRAK.

Price Action: MPC shares are up 2.80% at $149.00 premarket at the last check Tuesday.

Photo via Shutterstock

Read Next:

• 3 Midstream Stocks Poised to Benefit as Geopolitical Tensions Rise