Time To Look At The Refiners? (WNR, VLO, TSO)

Western Refining, Inc. WNR shares are skyrocketing, gaining 66 cents to $17.01, a gain of 4%. This comes as the crack spreads in refining continue to rise, as evidenced by the Bloomberg chart. We've seen a tremendous rise in the price of shares of Western Refining and to a lesser extent Valero VLO, and Tesoro TSO. These names are still cheap by historical standards, trading at around 9 times earnings, indicating there is still some margin for error in buying the names now. Valero is the only one of the three that pays a dividend, and it's minuscule, at 0.8%. These names aren't for dividend income, there is significant capital gains appreciation here. If oil continues to stay around these levels, and doesn't shoot significantly higher, and Japan continues to remain off line for an extended period of time, there is no reason why there won't be significant buying pressure in these names, especially as we get into the end of the quarter, when money managers want to add the outpeforming names to say they own them. Western Refining is the smallest name of the the three, with a market cap of $1.5 billion. As long as current conditions continue to last for the foreseeable future, these companies should be be printing money, which will make shareholders very happy for an extended period of time. Neither Benzinga nor its staff recommends that you buy, sell, or hold any security. We do not offer investment advice, personalized or otherwise. Benzinga recommends that you conduct your own due diligence and consult a certified financial professional for personalized advice about your financial situation.