(Oil Price) – Marathon Petroleum Corp (NYSE: MPC) beat the analyst consensus for its third-quarter earnings by a mile, despite the expected slump in profits due to plunging refining margins.
All U.S. refiners were expected to report much lower profits for the third quarter compared to a year earlier, as refining margins slumped to multi-year lows amid tepid fuel demand and increased global fuel supply.
On Tuesday, Marathon Petroleum joined the other major U.S. refiners, Valero Energy and Phillips 66, in reporting better-than-expected Q3 earnings even if profits significantly lagged last year’s record results.
Marathon Petroleum’s third-quarter net income attributable to the company stood at $622 million, or $1.87 per diluted share, for the third quarter, the company said today. This compares with a net income attributable of $3.3 billion, or $8.28 per diluted share, for the same period last year.
However, the earnings in Q3 2024 easily beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.00 EPS compiled by The Wall Street Journal.
Marathon Petroleum’s refining and marketing (R&M) margin was $14.35 per barrel for the third quarter of 2024, down from $26.16 per barrel for the third quarter of 2023. Crude capacity utilization was stable at 94% year over year, resulting in total throughput of 3.0 million barrels per day (bpd) for the third quarter of 2024.
The Board of Directors approved an incremental $5 billion share repurchase authorization. With the addition of this new authorization, the company has $8.5 billion available under its share repurchase authorizations, Marathon Petroleum said.
“We returned $3.0 billion through share repurchases and dividends during the quarter, demonstrating our commitment of peer-leading capital return,” said president and CEO Maryann Mannen.
This earnings season, the other big American refiners, Valero Energy and Phillips 66, also reported higher-than-expected earnings despite the weak refining margins in the third quarter compared to the blockbuster profits from refining in the previous two years.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
