How Valero’s Institutional Holdings Shape up Pre-3Q16 Earnings

Valero Energy’s (VLO) institutional holdings currently stand at ~86% and have fallen since the end of February 2016, when its institutional holdings stood at 98%. The falling level of such holdings suggests that sophisticated market participants have begun to lose confidence or sentiment in the stock. Usually, everything else being equal, rising institutional holdings indicate favorable opinions toward a stock.

By comparison, Marathon Petroleum (MPC), Tesoro (TSO), and Phillips 66 (PSX) have total institutional holdings of 85%, 95%, and 76%, respectively.

For indirect exposure to energy sector stocks, you can look into ETFs like the iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF (IWD), which has ~14% exposure to the industry.

Continue to the next and final part of this series for our analysis of Valero’s implied volatility.