Top 5 Oil and Gas Stocks to Invest In

4. Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:MPC) 

No of Hedge Fund Holders: 43
Total Value of Hedge Fund Holdings: $1.88 Billion

Marathon Petroleum Corporation ranks 4th on the list of top 10 oil and gas stocks to invest in. The petroleum refining and transportation company has over 16 refineries with over 3 million barrels per day capacity. The company recently rebranded their Martinez refinery to Martinez Green Fuels, a renewable fuels manufacturing, and terminal facility that can produce 730 million gallons of renewable fuels annually.

On April 16, Marathon Petroleum traded higher after Raymond James upgraded it from Market Perform to Strong Buy and set a price target of $69 per share. The company has a market cap of $33.9 billion and total revenue of $2.6 billion in 2020. Shares of Marathon Petroleum Corporation increased 119% over the past twelve months. There were 43 hedge funds that reported owning stakes in MPC at the end of the fourth quarter, down from 56 funds a quarter earlier. The total value of these stakes at the end of Q4 is $1.88 billion.

First Eagle Investment Management mentioned that Marathon Petroleum was dragged down by widespread weakness in the energy sector, especially in global refining markets and crack spreads in its Q1 2020 investor letter:

“Pervasive weakness across the energy sector, and in global refining markets and crack spreads specifically, pulled down Marathon Petroleum during the quarter. The stock was further hurt by early-March news that Japanese retailer Seven & i Holdings was scrapping plans to acquire Marathon’s Speedway gas station/convenience stores for $22 billion.”