Marathon recently closed a deal to sell Speedway to the parent of 7-Eleven
The shares of Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:MPC) are up 2.7% to trade at $61.68 at last check, after the oil and gas company this morning announced a modified Dutch auction of $4 billion of its outstanding common stock. Separately, Top Federal Trade Commission officials will be investigating Marathon's $21 billion sale of its Speedway gas stations to Seven and I Holdings, the parent of 7-Eleven, with many regulators calling it illegal on competitive grounds.
Today's pop has MPC nearing Friday's May 14 annual high of $61.95, which the stock hit before pulling back to close with more modest gains. After middling above the $51 level throughout March, the stock staged a bounce off that level in early April, enjoying four weeks of gains in the last five.
Though shorts have been jumping ship, with short interest down 14.6% during the last two reporting periods, these bearish bets still account for 4.5% of the stock's available float. In other words, it would take almost a week to buy back these bearish bets at Marathon Petroleum stock's average pace of trading.
Now could be a good time to weigh in on the security's next move with options. The stock is seeing attractively priced premiums at the moment, per MPC's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 39%, which sits in just the 6th percentile of its annual range. Furthermore, the security's Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) sits at a relatively high 85 out of 100, meaning SYF has exceeded these volatility expectations during the past year.