Marathon Reports Earnings

Rigzone is reporting:

Marathon Oil Corp.'s fourth-quarter earnings fell 41%, partly due to write-downs and other charges, and the company fell short of analysts' expectations as high taxes and exploration costs offset increased oil and gas sales.

Marathon Oil spun off its downstream and petroleum assets in 2011, creating Marathon Petroleum Corp., in order to focus its drilling efforts on oil-rich unconventional fields in the U.S. The company's profits from oil and gas operations have risen in recent quarters as its production has exceeded expectations.

In the fourth quarter, the company reported a profit of $322 million, or 45 cents a share, down from $549 million, or 78 cents, a year earlier. Taking out items such as impairment, pension settlement and unrealized gains on crude-oil derivative instruments, earnings from continuing operations fell to 55 cents from 78 cents. Revenue jumped 11% to $4.24 billion. Marathon's fourth-quarter results came in 12 cents under the 67 cents per-share forecast of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who had anticipated revenue of $3.93 billion.

MRO continues to trade near it's 52-week high, dropping a bit today. Unremarkable.