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If You Invested $1000 in Valero Energy a Decade Ago, This is How Much It'd Be Worth Now

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How much a stock's price changes over time is a significant driver for most investors. Not only can price performance impact your portfolio, but it can help you compare investment results across sectors and industries as well.

The fear of missing out, or FOMO, also plays a factor in investing, especially with particular tech giants, as well as popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in Valero Energy (VLO - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to VLO for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

Valero Energy's Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at Valero Energy's main business drivers.

San Antonio, TX-based Valero Energy Corporation is the largest independent refiner and marketer of petroleum products in the United States. The company was founded in 1980. It has a refining capacity of 3.1 million barrels per day across 15 refineries located throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Moreover, Valero is a leading ethanol producer with 14 ethanol plants in the Midwest that have a combined capacity of 1.73 billion gallons per year. The products of the company are sold in the markets of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Latin America. The company’s brand names are carried by around 7,000 outlets.

The company organizes its business through three reportable segments, namely, Refining, Ethanol and Renewable Diesel.

Refining: The Refining segment was responsible for 81.7% of the total margin in 2021. It includes refining operations, wholesale marketing, product supply and distribution, and transportation operations. This segment is segregated geographically into the Gulf Coast, mid-continent, West Coast and Northeast regions.

Ethanol: The Ethanol segment includes sales of internally produced ethanol and distillers grains. Operations of this segment are geographically located in the Central Plains region of the United States. This segment was responsible for 10.3% of the total margin in 2021.

Renewable Diesel: In the first quarter of 2019, the company created this segment. The Renewable Diesel segment incorporates the operations of a consolidated joint venture, Diamond Green Diesel. Notably, the renewable diesel plant is North America’s largest biomass-based diesel plant and it is located in Norco, LA. The segment provided 8% of the total margin in 2021, which was supported by the expansion of the Diamond Green Diesel plant.

Bottom Line

Putting together a successful investment portfolio takes a combination of research, patience, and a little bit of risk. For Valero Energy, if you bought shares a decade ago, you're likely feeling really good about your investment today.

According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in September 2012 would be worth $3,746.64, or a gain of 274.66%, as of September 1, 2022, and this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.

In comparison, the S&P 500 gained 181.18% and the price of gold went up -0.78% over the same time frame.

Analysts are forecasting more upside for VLO too.

Among all the independent refiners, Valero offers the most diversified refinery base with a capacity of 3.2 million barrels per day in its 15 refineries located throughout the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. The majority of Valero’s refining plants are located at the Gulf coast area from where there is easy access to the export facilities. The Gulf coast presence helped it to expand export volumes over the past years and gain from high distillate margins. Also, it intends to quadruple renewable diesel production capacity by 2023. With low-carbon fuel policies being adopted by economies globally, demand for renewable fuel is expected to significantly rise in the coming days. VLO reported strong second-quarter results due to higher refinery throughput volumes. Thus, Valero is considered a preferred energy firm to own now.

The stock has jumped 8.64% over the past four weeks. Additionally, no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 5 higher, for fiscal 2022; the consensus estimate has moved up as well.

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