A lot of money has been lost speculating on a turnaround in energy stocks during the past year. Trying to guess when the price of oil would finally bottom out, and how far it would rebound before leveling off, at times felt like a fool’s errand for industry analysts.  

But now it appears Saudi Arabia is done punishing its non-OPEC rivals, and the North American energy companies that survived are meaner and leaner for it, including oil refiner and marketer Valero Energy (VLO). Based on its most recent quarterly earnings report, released last week, it seems Valero is well on its way to a full recovery.  

Valero’s EPS of 77 cents blew away the analysts EPS estimate of 66 cents, pushing its share price well above the $57 buy limit price we set for it when we added it our portfolio on October 18^th. Even after that price jump the stock is still valued at only 11 times forward earnings, so there is plenty of room left on the upside for VLO before this trade is scheduled to be closed in January.