Marathon Oil First Quarter Earnings Sneak Peek

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE:MRO) will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, May 2, 2012. Marathon Oil is an oil and natural gas exploration and production company with operations in North America, Africa, and Europe.

Marathon Oil Corporation Earnings Preview Cheat Sheet

Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average estimate of analysts is for net income of 87 cents per share, a decline of 47.3% from the company’s actual earnings for the same quarter a year ago. During the past three months, the average estimate has moved up from 86 cents. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate moved down. It has risen from 85 cents during the last month. For the year, analysts are projecting profit of $3.81 per share, a rise of 18.7% from last year.

Past Earnings Performance: The company showed net income of 78 cents per share versus a mean estimate of profit of last quarter. This marks the fourth month of falling short of estimates.

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Wall St. Revenue Expectations: Analysts predict a decline of 84.1% in revenue from the year-earlier quarter to $3.36 billion.

A Look Back: In the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year, profit fell 22.2% to $549 million (78 cents a share) from $706 million (99 cents a share) the year earlier, missing analyst expectations. Revenue fell 81.3% to $3.67 billion from $19.56 billion.

Stock Price Performance: Between February 29, 2012 and April 26, 2012, the stock price had fallen $3.99 (-11.8%), from $33.89 to $29.90. The stock price saw one of its best stretches over the last year between January 13, 2012 and January 23, 2012, when shares rose for six straight days, increasing 5.8% (+$1.76) over that span. It saw one of its worst periods between July 25, 2011 and August 4, 2011 when shares fell for nine straight days, dropping 22.7% (-$7.38) over that span.

Key Stats:

The company is trying to use this earnings announcement to rebound from income declines in the past two quarters. Net income dropped 41.8% in the third quarter of the last fiscal year and then again in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year.

On the top line, the company is hoping to use this earnings announcement to snap a string of three-straight quarters of revenue declines. Revenue fell 79.9% in the second quarter of the last fiscal year and 80.1% in third quarter of the last fiscal year before falling again in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year of the last fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings: There are mostly holds on the stock with 10 of 16 analysts surveyed giving that rating.

Balance Sheet Analysis: The company’s current ratio of assets to liabilities came in at 0.73 last quarter. The current ratio is an indication of a firm’s liquidity and ability to meet creditor demands and generally, a ratio less than one could indicate a company may have difficulty meeting current obligations. The company regressed in this liquidity measure from 1.73 in the third quarter of the last fiscal year to the last quarter driven in part by a decrease in current assets. Current assets decreased 54.9% to $3.22 billion while liabilities rose by 6.5% to $4.39 billion.

(Company fundamentals by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

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