Buy - Price 31 on Oct. 20
by Soleil Securities Equity

After the market close last Tuesday, Holly announced that it sold crude-oil-storage and other midstream assets to Plains All American Pipeline (PAA) for $40 million in cash. These assets were acquired when Holly purchased the Tulsa, Okla., refinery from Sunoco (SUN) in June -- and, coupled with an earlier Tulsa midstream-asset sale for $17.5 million, Holly has essentially recouped almost all of the $65-million purchase price of the Tulsa refinery via asset sales. Market cap: $1.6 billion.

Unless demand rebounds, shutting idle refineries and writing down their value could cause another hit to balance sheets. Many refiners managed to raise capital earlier this year, "but if the low-margin environment persists, they may need to tap the capital markets again," says Caris' Ann Kohler, who has Underperform ratings on refiners including Tesoro, Sunoco, Valero, Frontier Oil (FTO), Holly (HOC) and Western Refining (WNR). Although Valero boasts a strong balance sheet, Sankey contends that it has "just 10 more quarters, or 2.5 years, of liquidity available" unless its markets improve.

Terranova suggests trading the refiners that benefit from the price spike but can also keep production rolling after the storm. “I like Sunoco (SUN) and HolyCorp (HOC) because both have rigs away from the Gulf,” he says.

Read more here.

Buy - Price on Feb. 17
by Soleil Equity Research

Holly reported 4Q08 operating earnings of $1.01 a share, ahead of our 70-cents-a-share forecast and consensus 59 cents, [thanks to] stronger-than-expected results from the company's New Mexico refinery. Holly remains our top refining-sector recommendation, and is the only refiner for which we forecast earnings to rise in 2010 from 2009, due to capital projects. However, we remain concerned about the near-term outlook for the sector, since we expect rising supply to place downward pressure on refining margins. Market cap: $1.17 billion.

Holly (HOC) was upgraded from Sell to Hold at Deutsche. $45 price target. The previous Sell rating was based upon the stocks relative valuation, however, due to a recalculation of the net asset value and the company's attractiveness as a consolidation candidate the stock is now upgraded to Hold

Goldman Sachs said it is downgrading Holly (HOC) to Neutral from Buy based on refining exposure. See continuing weakness in U.S. gasoline market and prefer risk/reward in FTO, VLO and SUN. HOC target down to $54 from $63.

Petroleum refiner Holly Corp. recently announced it expanded its buyback program by $200 million.

Friedman, Billings, Ramsey analyst Eitan Bernstein upgraded the stock to "Outperform" from "Market Perform." He left his $65 per share price target unchanged.

Holly (HOC) was upgraded to Buy rating from Neutral at UBS. FY 2008 eps estimates rise to $4.04 from $3.72 while price target dips to $62 from $69.

Guy Adami gave out high-flyer Holly Corporation (HOC).