Par Pacific Falls About 5% on Day Goldman Sachs Cuts Rating

Par Pacific Holdings (PARR) shares fell about 5% on Thursday, Oct. 15, the day Goldman Sachs lowered its rating on the refiner to Neutral from Buy. Goldman Sachs raised its price target to $94 from $90. The timing does not establish that the rating change caused the decline.

Goldman Sachs described the stock’s risk-reward outlook as more balanced, saying the market had increasingly recognized Par Pacific’s refining value and that the small refinery exemption catalyst had largely played out. The bank also raised its estimates to reflect updated refining-margin expectations. It expected elevated freight rates to weigh on the company’s realized margins.

The decline followed a sharp rise two days earlier. On Oct. 13, Par Pacific shares gained just over 8%, reached a 52-week high and closed at $89.88 in a rally that set a new high.

For the three months ended June 30, 2026, Par Pacific posted adjusted EBITDA of $571.3 million, including $552.0 million from refining. The company said its Hawaii turnaround was substantially complete. As of June 30, its recorded Renewable Fuel Standard obligation assumed no small refinery exemption relief because the Environmental Protection Agency had not determined its 2025 compliance-year petitions.

Small refinery exemptions can relieve qualifying refineries facing disproportionate economic hardship from Renewable Fuel Standard obligations. On Oct. 13, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed revising how additional exemptions for 2025 would be allocated across 2026 and 2027 after exemption volumes exceeded earlier projections. The proposal would revise allocation volumes set under the EPA’s March 2026 standards, which included a 70% reallocation of exemptions granted for 2023 through 2025.