Marathon Petroleum Corp Performs Better

Marathon Petroleum Corp. shares +0.99% inched 0.99% higher to $61.40 Thursday. This proved to be an all-around positive trading session for the stock market, with the S&P 500 Index SPX, +0.12% rising 0.12% to 4,200.88 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.41% rising 0.41% to 34,464.64. This is the second day of continuous gain.

Marathon Petroleum Corp. closed $0.55 short of its 52-week high ($61.95), which the company achieved on May 14th.The stock outperformed some of its competitors Thursday, as Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM, -0.64% fell 0.64% to $58.56, Chevron Corp. CVX, -1.07% fell 1.07% to $103.01, and BP PLC ADR BP, -0.11% fell 0.11% to $26.28. Trading volume (11.3 M) eclipsed its 50-day average volume of 6.8 M.

Marathon Petroleum Corp is trading at a reasonable valuation. In terms of the Price-to-Sales ratio, which is considered as one of the best valuation metrics, the stock looks quite cheap now. Marathon Petroleum Corp is currently trading at 0.54 times its sales. In other words, investors need to pay only 54 cents for each dollar of sales. A dash of recent price momentum reflects the growing interest of investors in the stock. With a four-week price change of 9.7%, the stock of this refiner is certainly well-positioned in this regard.

While any stock can see a spike in price for a short period, it takes a real momentum player to deliver positive returns for a longer time frame. Marathon Petroleum Corp meets this criterion too, as the stock gained 8.4% over the past 12 weeks. Moreover, the momentum is fast-paced, as the stock currently has a beta of 2.17. This indicates that the stock moves 117% higher than the market in either direction.