Exxon Sets Record; More Was Expected

HOUSTON

Exxon Mobil reported the fattest quarterly operating profit in U.S. corporate history Thursday – $11.68 billion – but took a beating anyway from investors who expected more.

Net income came to $2.22 a share, up from $10.26 billion, or $1.83 a share, a year ago. Revenue rose 40 percent to $138.1 billion. The $11.68 billion topped Exxon Mobil’s own U.S. record of $11.66 billion, in the fourth quarter of last year.

The record-setting results were largely expected, given that crude prices in the second quarter were nearly double what they were a year ago.

But investors expected even bigger profits Thursday, especially after Europe’s Royal Dutch Shell reported a 33 percent jump in second-quarter earnings to $11.6 billion.

Exxon Mobil got its biggest boost from exploration and production, where earnings rose to $10.01 billion from $5.95 billion a year ago. But the results revealed a troubling trend at the heart of its business – production slid the most in at least a decade.

Production on an oil-equivalent basis fell 8 percent from a year ago – a blow for a company that generates more than two-thirds of its earnings from oil and gas production.

– The Associated Press

market trading

Exxon Mobil shares fell $2.64, or 3.13 percent, to $81.74 in afternoon trading Thursday.

Earnings roundup. Page 3

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