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Exxon mobile triple profits { May 2 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.detnews.com/2003/business/0305/02/b04-153189.htmhttp://www.detnews.com/2003/business/0305/02/b04-153189.htm
Friday, May 2, 2003
ExxonMobil earnings triple in first quarter
Energy giant attributes profit rise to higher oil, natural gas prices
By David Koenig / Associated Press
IRVING, Texas -- Higher prices for crude oil and natural gas helped Exxon Mobil Corp. more than triple its first-quarter profit to $7.04 billion, its best quarter since the 1999 merger of Exxon and Mobil.
The higher commodity prices boosted revenue despite a modest 2 percent increase in Exxon Mobil's production.
Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, earned $1.05 a share in the January-March quarter, compared with $2.09 billion, or 30 cents, a year earlier.
The 2003 figures included onetime gains of $2.25 billion, mostly from a required accounting change.
Without the onetime credits, Exxon Mobil earned $4.79 billion, or 71 cents, a penny better than the forecast from analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.
The company's comparable profit in last year's first quarter was $2.12 billion or 30 cents.
Revenue jumped 47 percent to $63.78 billion from $43.39 billion.
After just three months, the Irving-based company is nearly two-thirds of the way to matching its 2002 earnings of $11.46 billion.
Analysts expect solid but more modest profits during the rest of the year, reflecting energy prices that have already retreated from early-year highs.
In trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange, Exxon Mobil shares rose 28 cents, or less than 1 percent, to $35.48.
Mark Baxter, who directs an energy institute at Southern Methodist University, said the earnings report would hurt Exxon Mobil's image -- that motorists still paying $1.50 or more per gallon of gasoline would take offense at the company's $7 billion profit.
"But I say, good for them," Baxter said. "They'll invest in exploration ... and put themselves in a position for future growth and replace their reserves. They're just a well-managed company."
Exxon Mobil is a so-called integrated oil company -- one side of its business explores and produces oil while another refines and markets crude oil and natural gas into finished products -- and that helps it weather ups and downs in commodity prices, analysts said.
Jacques Rousseau, an analyst for Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., said the company would earn $2.15 a share this year, even if oil falls to $22 a barrel from nearly $26 for June crude futures.
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