Credit Suisse Reiterates Outperform, Raises Price Target On Marathon Petroleum On Latest Management Update

In a report published Wednesday, Credit Suisse analyst Edward Westlake reiterated an Outperform rating on Marathon Petroleum Corp (NYSE: MPC), and raised the price target from $105.00 to $125.00.

In the report, Credit Suisse noted, "As we argued last week, persistent refiner free cashflow, from an industry at the low end of its global cost curve, should be rerated in a low interest environment. We also argued that self-help was still meaningful across the group. The increase to our MPC target price today is not a call on the current refining conditions, which are strong and could remain above consensus for much of 2015. Rather, it reflects the latest update from management in their latest presentation. MPC generated around $5.4bn of EBITDA in 2014. Self-help over the next few years could add up to $1.5- 1.7bn, yes $1.5-1.7bn. Consensus is $5.58bn in 2017. Inside we show the key contributions to this self-help. Using $6.1bn of 2017 EBITDA, which implies 15-20% weaker margins than 2014, and delivery of self-help, MPC's theoretical value at year end 2016 is $134/sh. Our TP is $125/sh. The strong macro conditions in 1H15 add some upside risk to this TP given the additional cashflow that should be generated."

Marathon Petroleum closed on Tuesday at $105.18.