Stockchase Opinions

Gordon Reid Marathon Petroleum MPC-N COMMENT May 02, 2017

From a PE valuation standpoint, refiners tend to work together. You see spreads widen or narrow off the raw product of oil, into the different commercial products. This company has been a good performer over the years. Not having great visibility into the cycle and to the spreads, he would probably pass on making this a core holding.

$51.420

Stock price when the opinion was issued

oil gas
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WATCH

With refiners, from late summer to end of Sept, this sector goes through a process. They shut down refineries and move into producing heating oil. Mid July until end of Sept is seasonal strength. Watch inventories of gas and heating oil.

COMMENT

You can expect resistance on this at around $42. It is now at $38, so it is reaching a Sell target zone. If there is any further rally, he would Sell.

WATCH

He sees resistance around $51. The chart shows a double top in 2015. This is a good indicator that the 2nd time the bulls tried to do it, they got exhausted. Currently the chart is showing a nice upward trend. He likes energy. If this breaks above $51, he would be keen to add.

BUY

Sells at 5x earnings and Goldman recommended it today.

BUY

When OPEC raises oil prices, it will hurt MPC's margin, but this is a cheap stock that's well run.

BUY
Trevor Rose’s Insights - Trevor’s most-liked answers from 5i Research

MPC is now trading at 8.2x times' Forward P/E. In the most recent quarter, MPC’s revenue declined 32% to $36.8B, beating estimates of $33.9B and adjusted EBITDA came down from $9B to around $4.5B; the decline was largely expected after high oil prices in 2022. The balance sheet is strong, with net debt of $17.1B and net debt/EBITDA of around 0.8x. Given the record cash flow generated from the oil tailwind in the last few years, the company has implemented one of the more aggressive share-repurchasing programs.  Going forward, MPC’s fundamentals and share price would be heavily affected by the movement in oil prices. However, we think MPC just had a solid quarter, and still looks cheap, while MPC is fully committed to buying back more shares. We would be comfortable buying in the context of the sector.
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BUY

He just bought it. Since 2021, they've bought nearly half their shares. Been buying aggressively and will buy another $5.9 billion. They're printing cash by generating so much cash flow. They increased their dividend by 10% with a forward PE of 11x.

DON'T BUY

Trump wants the oil price to come down to offset any inflation from tariffs. This is why investors have been selling oil shares.