Simmons Upgrades Marathon Oil (MRO) to Overweight; 25% Upside

Simmons, a unit of Piper Jaffray, upgraded Marathon Oil (NYSE: MRO) from Neutral to Overweight with a price target of $16.00 (from $14.00).

Analyst Guy Baber commented, "Our Neutral rating had largely been driven by concerns over financial resilience and elevated leverage. Yet as we noted in our 1Q’16 earnings review, the story has improved thanks to an equity offering and non-core asset sales success. Considering 1) improved financial resilience; 2) meaningful operational leverage to ongoing oil price appreciation; 3) a well rounded US unconventional portfolio with exposure to the emerging SCOOP and STACK; and 4) reasonable relative valuation, we upgrade MRO from Neutral to Overweight. MRO offers ~25% upside potential to our 12 month PT of $16/sh ($14 prior) – above average upside within our coverage universe (which is fairly valued overall)."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Marathon Oil click here. For more ratings news on Marathon Oil click here.

Shares of Marathon Oil closed at $12.90 yesterday.

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