Marathon Oil Bumps up Quarterly Dividend by 20%

Marathon Oil Corporation (MRO) has raised its quarterly cash dividend by 20% to $0.06 per share. Markedly, this is the third consecutive increase in the company’s quarterly base dividend and represents a cumulative 100% rise since the end of last year.

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Marathon Oil announced that the new dividend will be paid on December 10 to shareholders of record as of November 17. (See Marathon Oil stock charts on TipRanks)

The company’s annual dividend of $0.24 per share now reflects a dividend yield of 1.48%.

The CEO of Marathon Oil, Lee Tillman, said, “This decision is fully consistent with our commitment to pay a competitive and sustainable dividend to our shareholders. It also reflects the increased confidence we have in our business due to the substantial improvements we have realized in our cost structure and free cash flow breakeven.”

Marathon Oil will report its earnings for the third quarter of 2021 on November 3 after the markets close.

Wall Street’s Take

On October 26, Benchmark Co. analyst Subash Chandra initiated coverage of the stock with a Buy rating and a price target of $19 (17.28% upside potential).

According to Chandra, Marathon has “the most generous return-of-capital formula” among the stocks in his coverage. He expects debt retirements in the third quarter to lead to larger payouts, starting in the fourth quarter.

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The rest of the Street is cautiously optimistic about the stock and has a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on 10 analysts suggesting a Buy and 4 analysts recommending a Hold. The average Marathon Oil price target of $18.36 implies 13.3% upside potential to current levels. Shares have increased 37.9% over the past six months.

Bloggers Weigh In

TipRanks data shows that financial blogger opinions are 88% Bullish on MRO, compared to a sector average of 71%.