With Valero up almost 26% over the past 12 months versus the paltry sub-3% return of the S&P 500, it seems as good a time as any to question whether the stock can continue to deliver market-beating returns.
Though refiners like Valero don't directly profit from higher oil prices, rising prices do tend to boost the crack spread that refiners do profit from. And though oil fell back from the highs that it touched earlier in the day, it is still breathing down the neck of $100 per barrel.
On The Motley Fool's CAPS service, Valero has managed to score a perfect five-star rating from an aggregate 2,740 investor ratings (2,640 bulls versus just 100 bears). Though other refiners such as Delek and Alon share similarly high ratings, Valero blows both out of the water in terms of the total number of players bullish on the stock.
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