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 Marathon Petroleum (MPC Quick QuoteMPC - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to MPC for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

Marathon Petroleum's Business In-Depth

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

Findlay, OH-based Marathon Petroleum Corporation is a leading independent refiner, transporter and marketer of petroleum products. The company, in its current form, came into existence following the 2011 spin-off of Houston, TX-based Marathon Oil Corporation’s refining/sales business into a separate, independent and publicly traded entity. In October 2018, Marathon Petroleum completed the acquisition of its rival Andeavor in a $23.3 billion deal, thereby becoming the nationwide largest refining company by market capitalization. The deal also made the company the largest U.S. refiner and the fifth largest in the world by capacity.

Marathon Petroleum operates in three segments: Refining and Marketing, Midstream and Renewable Diesel.

Refining and Marketing (R&M): The unit’s operations include 13 refineries, located in the West Coast, Gulf Coast and the Mid-Continent regions of the United States, having a combined crude processing capacity of about 3 million barrels per day. Additionally, Marathon Petroleum – through its marketing organization – sells transportation fuels, asphalt and specialty products throughout the country to support commercial, industrial and retail operations. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the Refining & Marketing segment recorded adjusted EBITDA of $2 billion.

Midstream: This unit is operated primarily through MPLX and it gathers, transports, stores and distributes crude oil, refined products and renewable diesel using pipelines, terminals, marine vessels and refining logistics assets. It also gathers, treats and processes natural gas and handles natural gas liquids (NGL) transportation, fractionation, storage and marketing. The business is advancing MPLX’s integrated wellhead-to-water strategy to support growing U.S. energy demand. The Midstream segment reported adjusted EBITDA of $1.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Renewable Diesel: In the fourth quarter of 2024, Marathon Petroleum launched this segment, separating these activities and assets from the Refining & Marketing segment. The unit reported adjusted EBITDA of $7 million in the fourth quarter of 2025.

In 2021, Marathon Petroleum sold its Speedway business to Japanese retail group 7-Eleven, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd.– for $21 billion.

Bottom Line

While anyone can invest, building a lucrative investment portfolio takes research, patience, and a little bit of risk. If you had invested in Marathon Petroleum ten years ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.

According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in October 2016 would be worth $10,404.78, or a gain of 940.48%, as of October 5, 2026, and this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.

In comparison, the S&P 500's gained 256.17% and the price of gold went up 214.74% over the same time frame.

Looking ahead, analysts are expecting more upside for MPC.

Marathon Petroleum benefits from the scale and integration of a large, diversified U.S. refining system and a logistics network that enhances crude sourcing, product placement and regional optimization. Its majority ownership of MPLX provides durable fee-based midstream cash flow and diversifies earnings beyond refining. A favorable refining environment, elevated global capacity outages and tight U.S. fuel inventories are supporting margins. Advantaged crude access also enables feedstock optimization and reduces exposure to costly crude dislocations. Meanwhile, investments in jet fuel, specialty gasoline and diesel yields should strengthen the product mix. Export flexibility adds further growth potential by allowing MPC to capitalize on domestic and international markets. These strengths support an Outperform Recommendation.

The stock is up 8.60% over the past four weeks, and no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 7 higher, for fiscal 2026. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.