NEW YORK (Reuters)
- Exxon Mobil Corp said on Thursday soaring oil prices pushed its
second-quarter earnings up 14 percent, again breaking its own record
for the highest-ever profit by a U.S. company.
Net income in the quarter rose to $11.68 billion, or $2.22 a share, from $10.26 billion, or $1.83 a share, last year.
Exxon -- the world's largest publicly traded company -- previously
set the high-water mark for quarterly earnings in the fourth quarter of
last year, when it brought in $11.66 billion.
Despite the new record, Exxon's results lagged behind analyst expectations.
The company posted operating earnings of $2.27 a share in the
quarter, which exclude a $290 million charge related to the recent
Supreme Court ruling in the Exxon Valdez case. Analysts, on average,
had expected the company to earn $2.53 a share, according to Reuters
Estimates.
Revenue in the quarter rose about 40 percent to $138.07 billion.
Exxon both produces oil and refines it to make gasoline, and profit
margins for gasoline were weak during the quarter, holding back
earnings slightly.
The company said earnings from its exploration and production
business rose about 68 percent to $10.01 billion. But its refining and
marketing earnings fell about 54 percent to $1.56 billion.
U.S. oil prices averaged slightly less than $125 a barrel in the
quarter, nearly double prices from a year earlier. Gasoline prices only
rose 25 percent during that same period, resulting in weak profit
margins for the fuel.
Shares of Exxon Mobil fell 2.2 percent in pre-market trade after its
earnings were announced. Through Wednesday's close, they were down
about 10 percent this year, underperforming the Chicago Board Options
Exchange's oil index, which has fallen about 5.2 percent over the same
period.
(Reporting by Michael Erman, editing by Dave Zimmerman)
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