Shares of Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) reacted to its fourth-quarter earnings report early Thursday. The long and short of the matter is that earnings were down 16%, mostly due to lower production and weaker-than-expected margins in its refining operations.

The profit was still $8.35 billion, or $1.91 in earnings per share. Thomson Reuters had estimates of $1.92 per share, and the same quarter in 2012 showed earnings of $9.95 billion, or $2.20 per share. Revenue was down about 3% to $110.86 billion, which is short of the consensus estimate of about $114.5 billion. Note that many analysts make earnings per share predictions but they hardly make revenue predictions.

Exploration and production earnings were down 13% to just under $6.8 billion, and production was down 1.8%. Earnings from refining and marketing were down a sharp 48% to $916 million.

Still, Exxon managed to spend more than $3 billion buying back stock during the quarter, and it sees another $3 billion or so in the first quarter.

Exxon Mobil shares were down 0.5% at $95.11 on Wednesday, and the shares are indicated down 1.5% or so at $93.75 in early Thursday trading.

Despite a drop in earnings, think of the good news here — Exxon Mobil’s stock price is now getting closer to where it was when everyone found out that Warren Buffett had taken a huge stake.

Exxon Mobil’s share price was $93.22 before the Warren Buffett stake came to light in November, and the stock instantly popped to $95.27 on the news. Buffett may have bought this stock in the high $80s or low $90s, but this is still where the stock rallied from before.

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