UPDATE: Deutsche Bank Upgrades Marathon Petroleum Heading into Analyst Day

In a report published Monday, Deutsche Bank analyst Paul Sankey upgraded the rating on Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: MPC) from Hold to Buy, and raised the price target from $80.00 to $108.00.

In the report, Deutsche Bank noted, “For MPC specifically, into the analyst day, huge US refiner, major exposure to discounted crudes, strong product export portfolio, all good. MPC: operationally excellent - a key criterion for buying a refiner. They are upgrading performance at their ‘third leg' Galveston Bay refinery, bought for a song from BP. Criticism: the conservatism of the company regarding MLP drop downs, but their enormous logistics system is best-in-class. Extra risks: if oil demand gets super-weak, key Chicago markets will turn bad. Watch for excess gasoline. MPC is acquisitive, eg potential bidder for Hess' major retail network, and should they over-pay (their last ENB pipeline deal looked excellent) the market will fret about excess spending. PT $108 based on 9x 2014 EPS of $12.”

Marathon Petroleum closed on Friday at $82.74.