Dallas, Texas 10/28/2013 (Financialstrend) – HollyFrontier Corporation (NYSE:HFC) stock has been shaping up really well in the run up to its 3 quarter result announcements. In the week of October 10, J.P. Morgan analysts who specialize on the energy sector released a report which estimated strong 3Q results from big caped, integrated oil drilling and refining companies. Post the announcement, the stock of HollyFrontier had appreciated by 2.2%. In more positive news for the sector, speculative news reports shared to appear in the trade magazines indicating Environmental Protection Agency impending decision to relax the mandatory ethanol content that gets blended into auto fuel. The refineries have been a jubilant lot since the speculations gathered strength, since this means less dependency for them on bio fuel manufacturers. Stock of Holly gained an additional 2.2% on the back of this news. Finally rating agency Howard Weil published an October 15 report which listed out the positive drivers for the oil refinery sector. In the report HollyFrontier stock has been singled out for an rating upgrade. It has pegged the $8.88 billion market capitalized firm from to an Outperform from earlier Sector perform. HFC stock gained 2% following the publishing of the rating upgrade news.
As of close of business on October 25, the stock has been trading at $44.06, up 0.69% from its previous day close. During the previous week trading, the stock has shed 1.91% of its market value and has been in the red by 9.2% in comparison to its 180 day prior valuation. Over the trailing 12 month period, the firm has recorded sales of $20.36 billion with net income in the same time frame adding up to $1.58 billion. Part of the profits has been used to increase share holder value in the form of dividend payouts. In the past 12 months, the oil firm has clocked dividend yield of 2.72%.