Marathon Petroleum Corp. stock outperforms the market

The Shares of Marathon Petroleum Corp. rose 1.08% to $56.04 Thursday. This w proved to be an all-around positive trading session for the stock market, with the S&P 500 Index SPX rising 0.68% to 4,211.47 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA rising 0.71% to 34,060.36. This was the stock’s fifth consecutive day of gains.

Marathon Petroleum Corp. closed $3.89 below its 52-week high of $59.93 which the company achieved on March 11th. The stock demonstrated a mixed performance when compared to some of its competitors Thursday, as Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM rose 1.43% to $58.94, Chevron Corp. CVX rose 1.60% to $106.90, and BP PLC ADR BP fell 0.55% to $25.50. Trading volume remained 257,865 below its 50-day average volume of 5.8 M.

Marathon Petroleum Corp. has crossed above the average analyst 12-month target price of $54.36, changing hands for $55.44/share. There are analysts with lower targets than the average, including one looking for a price of $30.00. And then on the other side of the spectrum, one analyst has a target as high as $83.00. The standard deviation is $15.844.Analyst reaction may depend on the fundamental business developments that may be responsible for driving the stock price higher if things are looking up for the company, perhaps it is time for that target price to be raised. 11 different analysts target on contributing to that average for Petroleum firms but the average is just that, a mathematical average.