Which Is a Better Investment, Marathon Petroleum Corp or YPF SA (ADR) Stock?

By AAII Staff
September 03, 2026
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Sifting through countless of stocks in the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in Marathon Petroleum Corporation or YPF Sociedad Anónima because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how Marathon Petroleum Corporation and YPF Sociedad Anónima compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About Marathon Petroleum Corporation and YPF Sociedad Anónima

Marathon Petroleum Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated downstream energy company in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Refining & Marketing; Midstream; and Renewable Diesel. The Refining & Marketing segment refines crude oil and other feedstocks at its refineries in the Gulf Coast, Mid-Continent, and West Coast regions of the United States; and purchases refined products and ethanol for resale and distributes refined products through transportation, storage, distribution, and marketing services. Its refined products include transportation fuels, such as reformulated gasolines and blend-grade gasolines; heavy fuel oil; and asphalt. This segment also manufactures propane and petrochemicals. The company sells refined products to wholesale marketing customers in the United States and internationally, buyers on the spot market, and independent entrepreneurs who operate primarily Marathon branded outlets, as well as through long-term fuel supply contracts to direct dealer locations primarily under the ARCO brand. The Midstream segment gathers, transports, stores, distributes, and markets crude oil and refined products, including renewable diesel and other hydrocarbon-based products through refining logistics assets, pipelines, terminals, towboats, and barges; gathers, processes, and transports natural gas; and transports, fractionates, stores, and markets natural gas liquids. The Renewable Diesel segment processes renewable feedstocks into renewable diesel, markets, and distributes renewable diesel through its Midstream segment and third parties. It sells renewable diesel to wholesale marketing customers, buyers on the spot market, and through long-term supply contracts to direct dealers under the ARCO brand. Marathon Petroleum Corporation was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in Findlay, Ohio.

YPF Sociedad Anónima, an energy company, engages in the oil and gas upstream and downstream activities in South America and Argentina. The company operates through the Upstream, Midstream and Downstream, LNG and Integrated Gas, and New Energies segments. It is involved in the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbon fields and production of crude oil and natural gas; the refining, transportation and commercialization of refined products; the production, transportation, and commercialization of petrochemical products; the transportation and commercialization of crude oil; and the commercialization of specialties for the agribusiness industry, and of grains and their by-products. The company also offers fertilizers and crop protection products; flours, oils, and grains; asphalts; naphtha; and petroleum coke. In addition, it engages in the natural gas transportation and commercialization to third parties and to the Midstream and Downstream segments; the separation of natural gas liquids and their fractionation, and storage and transportation to produce ethane, propane, butane, and gasoline, as well as its commercialization; the development of liquefied natural gas liquefaction capacity; and power generation activities. The company was incorporated in 1977 and is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Latest Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels and Marathon Petroleum Corporation, YPF Sociedad Anónima Stock News

As of September 2, 2026, Marathon Petroleum Corporation had a $108.7 billion market capitalization, compared to the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels median of $2.7 million. Marathon Petroleum Corporation’s stock is NA in 2026, NA in the previous five trading days and up 114.82% in the past year.

Currently, Marathon Petroleum Corporation’s price-earnings ratio is 13.5. Marathon Petroleum Corporation’s trailing 12-month revenue is $154.1 billion with a 5.5% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 53.7%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $50.687 per share for the current fiscal year. Marathon Petroleum Corporation currently has a 1.0% dividend yield.

Currently, YPF Sociedad Anónima’s price-earnings ratio is 266.9. YPF Sociedad Anónima’s trailing 12-month revenue is $19.7 billion with a 4.0% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 38.5%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $6.676 per share for the current fiscal year. YPF Sociedad Anónima does not currently pay a dividend.

How We Compare Marathon Petroleum Corporation and YPF Sociedad Anónima Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at Marathon Petroleum Corporation and YPF Sociedad Anónima’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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Marathon Petroleum Corporation and YPF Sociedad Anónima Growth Grades

Company Ticker Growth
Marathon Petroleum Corporation MPC C
YPF Sociedad Anónima YPF B

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

Marathon Petroleum Corporation has a Growth Score of 48, which is Average. YPF Sociedad Anónima has a Growth Score of 64, which is Strong.

The Growth Grade Winner: YPF Sociedad Anónima

As you can clearly see from the Growth Grade breakdown above, YPF Sociedad Anónima has a more attractive growth grade than Marathon Petroleum Corporation. For investors who focus solely on how a company is growing relative to other companies in the same industry, YPF Sociedad Anónima could be a good stock to add to their portfolio. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Marathon Petroleum Corporation and YPF Sociedad Anónima’s Quality Grades

Company Ticker Quality
Marathon Petroleum Corporation MPC A
YPF Sociedad Anónima YPF A

Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

Marathon Petroleum Corporation has a Quality Score of 90, which is Very Strong. YPF Sociedad Anónima has a Quality Score of 84, which is Very Strong.

The Quality Grade Winner: It’s a Tie!

Looking at the Quality Grade breakdown above, both Marathon Petroleum Corporation and YPF Sociedad Anónima have a grade of A. For investors who focus solely on a company’s overall quality, you will need to conduct further research into both companies to see if they are a good fit for your portfolio. As a good rule of thumb, you should always analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before choosing a company to invest in.

Marathon Petroleum Corporation and YPF Sociedad Anónima’s Estimate Revisions Grades

Company Ticker Earnings Estimate
Marathon Petroleum Corporation MPC A
YPF Sociedad Anónima YPF B

Earnings estimate revisions scores consider the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, positive surprises beget further positive surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

Estimate revisions offer an indication of what analysts are thinking about the short-term prospects of a firm. Estimate revisions are based on the statistical significance of a firm’s last two quarterly earnings surprises and the percentage change in its consensus estimate for the current fiscal year over the past month and past three months.

Marathon Petroleum Corporation has a Earnings Estimate Score of 87, which is Very Positive. YPF Sociedad Anónima has a Earnings Estimate Score of 75, which is Positive.

The Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade Winner: Marathon Petroleum Corporation

As you can clearly see from the Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade breakdown above, Marathon Petroleum Corporation has a better Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade than YPF Sociedad Anónima. For those who are specifically looking for companies with better short-term prospects when compared to other companies in the same industry, Marathon Petroleum Corporation could be a good stock to invest in. However, it’s important to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

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Other Marathon Petroleum Corporation and YPF Sociedad Anónima Grades

In addition to Estimate Revisions, Growth and Quality, A+ Investor also provides grades for Value and Momentum.

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Momentum grades help uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming.

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection. Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether Marathon Petroleum Corporation and YPF Sociedad Anónima pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, Marathon Petroleum Corporation or YPF Sociedad Anónima Stock?

Overall, Marathon Petroleum Corporation stock has a Growth Score of 48, Estimate Revisions Score of 87 and Quality Score of 90.

YPF Sociedad Anónima stock has a Growth Score of 64, Estimate Revisions Score of 75 and Quality Score of 84.

Comparing Marathon Petroleum Corporation and YPF Sociedad Anónima’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

Learn More About A+ Investor

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.



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