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Exxon Mobil (XOM) Beats on Q1 Earnings, Misses Revenues

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Energy giant Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM - Free Report) posted strong first-quarter 2017 earnings. Increased realizations for liquids and gas as well as higher margin from the downstream business led to the outperformance.

The company reported earnings of 95 cents per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 85 cents. The bottom line also improved from the year-ago quarter level of 43 cents per share.

 

Total revenue in the quarter increased to $63,287 million from $48,707 million in the year-ago quarter. However, the top line missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $64,354 million due to lower oil equivalent production.    

Operational Performance

Upstream: Quarterly earnings from the segment were $2.3 billion, which compared favorably with a loss of $76 million in the prior-year quarter. Increased realizations from liquids and gas led to the outperformance.

Production averaged 4.151 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (MMBOE/d), down 2.3% year over year.

Liquid production fell 8% year over year to 2.333 million barrels per day owing to increased maintenance works in Canada and Nigeria.

However, natural gas production inched up 2% from the year-ago period to 10.908 MMCF/d (millions of cubic feet per day). Project ramp ups drove the upside.

Downstream: The segment recorded profits of $1.1 billion. The reported figure is $210 million higher than the January–March quarter of 2016. This was due to improved margin and favorable volume and mix effects.

ExxonMobil's refinery throughput averaged 4.3 million barrels per day (MMB/D), up 2.4% from the year-earlier level.

Chemical: This unit contributed approximately $1.2 billion. This is $184 million less than the first quarter of 2016. Lower margins from the business unit led to the decline.

Financials

During the quarter, ExxonMobil generated cash flow of $8.9 billion from operations and asset sales. The company returned $3.1 billion to shareholders through dividends. Capital and exploration spending decreased 19% year over year to $4.2 billion.

Q1 Price Performance

During the first three months of this year, Exxon Mobil shares underperformed the Zacks categorized Oil & Gas-International Integrated industry. During the aforesaid period, the company’s shares lost 9.2% compared with 5.3% decrease for the broader industry. 

Other News

On Apr 26, 2017, Exxon Mobil declared dividend of 77 cents per share for second quarter, up 2.7% from the previous payout of 75 cents. The increased dividend will likely be paid on Jun 9, to the shareholders on record as of May 12, 2017.

Zacks Rank

ExxonMobil currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked players from the energy sector include Antero Resources Corp. (AR - Free Report) , W&T Offshore Inc. (WTI - Free Report) and Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (DO - Free Report) . Antero Resources and Diamond Offshore sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), while W&T Offshore carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).  You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Antero Resources beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters with an average positive surprise of 239.10%.

W&T Offshore had an average positive earnings surprise of 50.53% for the last four quarters.

Diamond Offshore surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the prior four quarters with an average positive earnings surprise of 353.3%.

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