Exxon Mobil, Making More Than $10 Billion A Quarter Now (XOM)

Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) has released earnings on the heels of a dividend hike and shares are flirting with a new 52-week high.  Now investors get to digest the earnings report from Big Oil and you will get to see why oil companies are easy targets from politicians whether it is political chicanery or not… Exxon Mobil had revenues of roughly $114 billion and it earned $10.65 billion in its first quarter of 2011.

The earnings were turned in as $2.14 EPS.  Thomson Reuters was expecting $2.06 EPS, and the few revenue projections were closer to $115 billion for the quarter. The company said that net cash from operations was about $16.9 billion.  The integrated oil giant also noted that capital spending and exploration rose by 14% to $7.8 billion.

This was a time where everything worked.  The company discussed strong commodity prices driving crude and natural gas realizations, higher refining margins, and it discussed record performance in its chemicals business.

Exxon continues to repurchase shares at a furious pace as well with some $5.7 billion in share buybacks for some 69 million shares in the first quarter alone. It is expected to spend $5 billion repurchasing shares to lower its share count in the second quarter alone.

If you want to know just what $10.6 billion in profits really comes to… That comes to a profit of roughly $34.00 from every single American in the first quarter alone.

We are actually seeing a bit of a ‘sell the news’ reaction in the stock this morning.  Exxon Mobil shares are down 0.6% at $87.25 and its 52-week trading range is $55.94 to $88.23.

JON C. OGG