Start here if you're new
what it is
Global Partners buys, moves, and sells fuel, runs convenience stores, and earns rent from gas stations.
how it gets paid
Last year Global Partners made $8.7B in revenue. Wholesale fuel distribution was the main engine at $4.1B, or 47% of sales.
why it's growing
Revenue grew 0.3% last year on a full-year basis. A single reporting period in the feed shows a huge vs. prior year jump (~190%)— that is not the same as FY +0.3%; volume can swing quarter to quarter.
what just happened
Latest quarter in the feed: ~$2.2B revenue and ~12.3% gross margin (not the full $8.7B FY total).
At a glance
B balance sheet — gets the job done, barely
35/100 earnings predictability — expect surprises
21.3x trailing p/e — priced about right
6.5% return on capital — nothing to write home about
$2.41 fy2024 eps est
xvary composite: 42/100 — below average
What they do
Global Partners buys, moves, and sells fuel, runs convenience stores, and earns rent from gas stations.
You are not just buying tanks and trucks. You are buying a network with about 1,700 locations and one of the largest terminal networks in the Northeast. That matters because fuel has to keep moving, and the middleman takes a cut on every gallon.
How they make money
$8.7B
annual revenue · their business grew +0.3% last year
Wholesale fuel distribution
$4.1B
Gasoline and blendstocks
$1.8B
Distillates
$1.1B
Convenience store sales
$0.9B
Renewable fuels and other
$0.8B
The products that matter
bulk fuel distribution
Wholesale Fuel
~$4.1B · ~47% of FY revenue
Aligned with the revenue breakdown on this page (~$8.7B FY). It moved 1.6B gallons last quarter in the story copy— this segment wins by throughput, not by fat margins.
scale business
retail fuel and convenience
Gasoline Stations
$1.7B revenue
The retail network produced $1.7B in revenue, but product margin fell to $28.1M last quarter. Revenue is the headline. Margin is the part that pays you.
margin sensitive
commercial fuel supply
Commercial
$0.2B revenue
At roughly $0.2B in revenue, this is small next to wholesale. You should view it as support for network utilization, not as the engine of the thesis.
supporting piece
Key numbers
$8.7B
annual revenue
This is the size of the machine. Your real question is how much of that giant sales base turns into profit.
2.2%
operating margin
This means $100 of sales leaves about $2.20 before interest and taxes. That is a thin cushion.
$1.9B
long-term debt
This is the bill hanging over the business. More debt means less room if fuel margins soften.
21.3x
trailing p/e
Price-to-earnings ratio means the stock trades at 21.3 times last year's earnings. You are not buying a bargain bin name.
Financial health
B
strength
- balance sheet grade B — adequate — nothing special
- risk rank 3 — safer than 50% of stocks
- price stability 40 / 100
- long-term debt $1.9B (54% of capital)
B — functional but not a standout on the balance sheet.
Total return vs. market
Return history isn't available for GLP right now.
source: institutional data · return history unavailable
What just happened
beat estimates
Revenue in the latest quarter was about $2.2B, with gross margin around 12.3%.
A period in the feed was up ~190% vs. prior year— that is a quarter-to-quarter effect, not the +0.3% full-year pace. Gross margin near 12.3% means the business still runs on tight spreads.
$2.2B
quarter revenue
$0.66
quarter EPS
12.3%
gross margin
the number that mattered
12.3% gross margin means $100 of sales left $12.30 before operating costs. That is a thin cushion for an $8.7B business.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
the top risk for Global Partners is margin compression in fuel distribution. When you keep 0.43% of revenue as profit, you do not need a disaster to hurt earnings. You need one bad pricing stretch, one weak spread, or one operational stumble.
high
wholesale margin squeeze
Wholesale is ~$4.1B on this page's FY mix (~47% of sales) with 1.6B gallons of quarterly volume in the narrative. That scale is the strength and the vulnerability. If cents-per-gallon economics tighten, a huge throughput base gives small spread changes more surface area.
Impact: the core business already keeps only 0.43% of revenue as profit, so even modest spread pressure can hit earnings fast.
med
debt versus payout math
Long-term debt sits at $1.9B, or 54% of capital, while the units yield 9.2%. You can make that work when operations are steady. The catch is that a high payout and a meaningful debt load both want the same cash.
Impact: if cash generation weakens, management has to choose between protecting balance-sheet flexibility and defending the income story.
med
environmental and operating liability
This business stores and moves fuel through terminals, trucks, and retail sites. One incident can create cleanup costs, legal expense, and regulatory scrutiny that matter more in a roughly $2B company than they would in a much larger operator.
Impact: the dollar amount is not disclosed here, and that is the point. Unknown liabilities hurt more when the business has little profit cushion to absorb them.
Three risks matter most: cents-per-gallon pressure, debt against a rich payout, and liabilities that do not care how thin your margin is.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
metric
wholesale gross profit per gallon
Volume alone does not rescue this story. If gallons stay high and profit still slips, you are watching the business model's weak spot in real time.
calendar
series b preferred redemption window
The preferred shares become callable in May 2026. Redeeming a 9.5% security would improve long-run financing costs, but it also asks for cash today.
trend
distribution growth after 16 straight increases
Another increase supports the income case. A pause would tell you management sees less cushion than the headline yield implies.
risk
q1 2026 earnings commentary
Expected May 7, 2026. Listen for margin language, not just volume language. In this business, those are two very different stories.
Analyst rankings
earnings predictability
35 / 100
in human-speak, the quarterly numbers can move around more than you want from an income stock
risk rank
3
That puts GLP around the middle of the field — not fragile, not a bunker.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutional ownership data for GLP is being compiled.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
n/a
n/a
$46
current price
n/a
target midpoint · n/a from current
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