Marathon Petroleum Q3 FY2026: margin-led beat, $9.61 billion free cash flow
Marathon Petroleum's third quarter was a margin story, not a volume story: revenue rose 61.0% to $56.03 billion while throughput grew only 4.8%, and refining margin jumped to $45.70 per barrel from $17.60. Adjusted EPS of $26.93 beat the $24.72 consensus, and free cash flow of $9.61 billion funded $3.28 billion of buybacks and dividends. Read the quarter as peak-cycle capture, and read the risks as the same cycle turning.
1 · Expected vs. Actual
Free preview belowGAAP EPS of $26.59 becomes $26.93 adjusted, which is $2.21, or 9.0%, above the $24.72 consensus. The only adjustment is a $123 million tax and legal settlement, so essentially all of the profit is operating profit rather than accounting noise. Cash confirms it: free cash flow of $9.61 billion ran well ahead of net income of $7.45 billion, which is what a healthy refining upcycle should look like.
$56.03 billion is up 61.0% from $34.81 billion a year ago, and the gap is price, not barrels: net refinery throughput rose 4.8% to 3.15 million barrels per day while the Refining & Marketing margin went from $17.60 to $45.70 per barrel. Crude capacity utilization hit 100%, so there is nearly no spare volume left to sell into a better market. Midstream supplied only $1.58 billion of the total and renewable diesel $1.36 billion.
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Figures on this page come from the company's original SEC filings. The analysis is generated automatically and checked against validation rules, but may still contain errors or omissions. Not investment advice. · Generated 2026-11-03
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