Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, petroleum refiner Marathon Petroleum (MPC -0.81%) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Marathon and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Marathon facts

Headquarters

Findlay, Ohio

Market Cap

$29.8 billion

Industry

Oil and gas refining and marketing

Trailing-12-Month Revenue

$76.6 billion

Management

CEO Gary Heminger (since 2011)

CFO Donald Templin (since 2011)

Return on Equity (average, past 3 years)

21.8%

Cash/Debt

$4.9 billion / $3.4 billion

Dividend Yield

1.6%

Competitors

Chevron

ExxonMobil

Valero Energy

Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 96% of the 189 members who have rated Marathon believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward.

Just last week, one of those Fools, All-Star BudandMolly, succinctly summed up the Marathon bull case for our community:

Refiners have a monopoly on gas production. Due to regulation there is a virtual block to any new refineries or even expansion of existing ones leaving them without competition. Limited production of gasoline keeps prices high and as oil prices come down due to domestic production increases the spread of input costs to output prices increases.

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