What's priced into Valero Energy Corporation?
What do you have to believe to make money in Valero Energy Corporation at $352? The stock trades at 14.6x trailing earnings and its own trailing growth runs about 8% a year. The question is where do we go from here?
Growth down the side, exit multiple across the top, your five-year annualized return in each cell.
The expectations grid · 5-year annualized return
| EPS growth ↓ · Exit multiple → | 7.3x −50% | 11.0x −25% | 14.6x today | 18.3x +25% | 14.3x 5y median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| −4% (decline) | −16% | −9% | −4% | +0% | −4% |
| 0% (no growth) | −13% | −6% | +0% | +5% | −0% |
| 4% (half) | −9% | −2% | +4% | +9% | +4% |
| 8% (baseline 8%) | −6% | +2% | +8% | +13% | +8% |
| 10% (beat) | −4% | +4% | +10% | +15% | +10% |
| 12% (big beat) | −2% | +6% | +12% | +17% | +12% |
We wrote the full Valero Energy Corporation analysis: the business, the numbers, and the two or three things that have to be true.
Read the VLO write-up →Method. Trailing diluted EPS of $24.12 (price $352.36 ÷ 14.6x trailing P/E; data from Financial Modeling Prep, August 29, 2026). Exit multiples are anchored to the stock itself: 50% and 25% below today's multiple, today's, 25% above, and its own five-fiscal-year median of 14.3x. Growth rows are anchored to the company’s own trailing growth: a decline at half the center rate, zero, half, the center, 25% above, and 50% above. Cell shading scales with the return, green positive, red negative. Each cell: EPS compounds at the row's rate for five years, the stock is valued at the column's multiple in year five, and the result is the annualized return against today's price. Dividends and buybacks excluded. An illustrative surface, not a forecast and not a call.