Marathon Oil Earnings: Shareholder-Friendly Cash Returns Continue, but Dividend Mix Remains Low
No-moat-rated Marathon Oil underperformed our expectations for revenue, earnings, and cash in its latest fourth-quarter results. Total production of 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, or 400 mboe/d, similarly fell below our expectations and dipped 5% sequentially, though production costs fell a bit below our model. Further, lower hydrocarbon volumes were primarily due to lower production than we expected from the Eagle Ford basin.