Marathon Oil Corporation MRO gapped down over 2% to start Wednesday’s trading session but was rising intraday, to trade near flat. The company is set to print first-quarter earnings after the close.
When Marathon printed a fourth-quarter EPS beat on Feb. 15, the stock rose 2.72% the following day before continuing in its downtrend.
For that quarter, Marathon reported earnings of 88 cents per share on revenues of $1.73 billion, beating a consensus estimate for EPS of 84 cents.
For the first quarter, analysts, on average, estimate Marathon will report earnings per share of 61 cents on revenues of $1.63 billion.
On April 21, three firms weighed in on Marathon. Susquehanna maintained a Positive rating and lowered the price target from $35 to $32. Goldman Sachs maintained a Sell rating and raised the price target from $24 to $28, while Raymond James maintained a Strong Buy rating and raised the price target from $43 to $48.
From a technical analysis perspective, Marathons stock looks bullish neutral into the event, trading in a downtrend but in need of printing at least its next lower high. It should be noted that holding stocks or options over an earnings print is akin to gambling because stocks can react bullishly to an earnings miss and bearishly to an earnings beat.
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The Marathon Chart: Marathon started trading in a downtrend on April 4 and has since made a consistent series of lower highs and lower lows. The stock’s most recent lower high was formed on Friday at $24.37 and the most recent confirmed lower low was printed at the $23 mark two days prior.
- If Marathon receives a bullish reaction to its earnings and rises, bullish traders want to see the stock make a higher high to negate the downtrend. If that happens, Marathon will regain the eight-day and 21-day exponential moving averages and the 50-day simple moving average, which would give bullish traders more confidence going forward.
- If the stock suffers a bearish reaction to the print and falls under $23, the downtrend is likely to continue, and the stock could eventually test support at the psychologically important $20 level.
- Marathon has resistance above at $22.80 and $24.36 and support below at $21.07 and $19.91.
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