Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO)

“Marathon delivered a strong operating performance across its businesses and solid financial results in the first quarter despite the largest amount of planned maintenance and turnaround activity in the Company’s history,” said Clarence P. Cazalot Jr., Marathon’s president and chief executive officer. “With most of that work now behind us, the Company is well positioned to benefit from the ongoing global economic recovery and, in particular, from much better oil prices compared to this time last year and improving margins for refined products.

“Looking forward, our goals are unchanged and remain focused on delivering top-quartile financial and shareholder returns. We’ll do that by continuing to control expenses, operating our businesses in a reliable and sustainable manner as well as maintaining our disciplined approach to capital investment,”

While we rarely have considered oil and gas companies for consideration in our portfolios MRO has grabbed our attention. The company reported 2010 first quarter EPS of $0.44 crushing estimates by 83.4%.  Comments indicating that expenses related to maintenance activities are now behind the company indicate that growth could accelerate going forward. Even before these results MRO was expected to report 2010 EPS of $3.14 followed by $4.81 in 2011 compared to $1.67 in 2009. We feel it is reasonable that the stock could trade at a P/E multiple of 15 on 2010 EPS estimates.