Is It Time to Take Profits on Oil Refining Stocks? (re-visited)

Adam Feik - INO.com Contributor - Energies


I wrote on February 24th about whether the time had come to take profits on oil refining stocks like Tesoro, Valero, and others. (My conclusion was to hold the stocks for the time being, but to keep a close eye on them).

Since then, oil refiners have continued rising (generally), as oil prices have showed continuing weakness – especially in the last 30 days. Crude oil, of course, is the key input for refiners, so refiners benefit when its raw materials prices are low. Nymex crude fell below $50/bbl Wednesday, having fallen from $61 on June 23, 2015, and from $107 on June 20, 2014 (data from eia.gov).

Here's an updated table showing performance of selected refiners through July 22:

On Thursday, July 23rd, oil and refining stocks both fell. But more often recently, it's been… Continue reading "Is It Time to Take Profits on Oil Refining Stocks? (re-visited)"

Is It Time To Take Profits On Oil Refining Stocks?

Adam Feik - INO.com Contributor - Energies


Does it sound strange to even think about "taking profits" on anything related to energy?

Well, oil refining companies' stocks have enjoyed quite a run this year. Check out this table summarizing recent returns for 5 selected stocks (total returns through 2/20/15, from Morningstar; returns longer than 1 year are annualized; "since Jan. 15" data from Yahoo! Finance):

If you haven't paid attention to this group, how surprised are you to see a group of oil-related stocks with positive returns over the past 12 months – let alone Tesoro's +82% performance?!!

I've also included the 3-, 5-, 10, and 15-year returns, just because they're so remarkable.

Oil down, refiners up!

Of course, the driving reason for this group's stellar 1-year returns is that oil refiners actually benefit from being able to pay lower prices for crude oil, which is the primary raw material used to make their refined products, such as gasoline. Continue reading "Is It Time To Take Profits On Oil Refining Stocks?"